The complexities of how the brain processes information will soon be found on microchips. The technology could lead to a new generation of innovative medical devices and poses some exciting applications for the medical industry. Qualcomm CTO Matt Grob said it will partner with researchers, startups and other companies to design and manufacture chips with applications that could include artificial vision sensors, robot controllers and brain implants, according to MIT Technology Review. He made the comments in a talk at the EmTech 2013 conference this week.
The new generation of microchips are structured in a similar way as the brain: they processes information in a distributed, parallel way, modeled after how the neurons and synapses work in a brain, according to the article. That’s a big change in the architecture of current computer systems that are built with separate units for storing information and processing it sequentially.
Qualcomm sees neural processing units as reprogrammable with the ability to classify and predict. The vision is to scale this up for a platform, the article quoted Grob: “We want to make it easier for researchers to make a part of the brain.”
The brain-inspired software is already being used in prototypes designed by Qualcomm. It designed a car that can be told a destination and figure out the best way to get there through a learning process.
“The promise of this is a kind of machine that can learn, and be programmed without software—be programmed the way you teach your kid,” Grob said.
The drive to create this next generation of microchips has been underway for a few years by the likes of IBM and Intel.
You can watch Grob’s presentation with this link.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
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