A US-based science group intends to use a crowd sale to distribute brain-computer interfaces to a community of hackers.
The NSA might disagree.
Up front:Brain-computer interfacesare huge right now.
Or, at least, they could be if they were accessible, affordable, and functional.
Theres enough hype out there to make BCI a household acronym.
And we can thank Elon MusksNeuralinkfor that.
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Background:Brain-computer interfaces have been around for decades.
But, thanks to recent advances in machine learning, theyve become a hugely popular field of research-for-future-profit.
What Hacker BCI is attempting to accomplish is quite different than what the medical community or Elon Musk is.
On the one hand, its super cool.
Thecompanys papersays it costs about $350 for 24 electrodes.
Were assuming thats indicative of their cost of production for the devices.
This makes it seem like you could build your own DIY BCI for around $500 or $600.
But, on the other hand, this isnt the first BCI kit for hobbyists and students.
It might be the first one with a bespoke Raspberry Pi shield and a research paper.
But a quick Google search can point would-be BCI builders to myriad similar solutions with options galore.
The bottom line is that these devices can only do so much.
At their absolute best, these sorts of BCIs allow you to control computers with movement.
Clever algorithms can translate these signals into direct inputs, such as executing a function whenever you blink.
Is it worth hundreds of dollars?
In the practical sense: no.
Of course it isnt.
Theres no functional, consumer-luring upside here.
