One of the biggest challenges for people with neurological disabilities is that they are frequently more intelligent than their cognitive impairment suggests.
The University of Michigan spinout, Neurable, has collaborated with Wearable Sensing on a brain-computer interface that taps into the cognitive process we use for making certain decisions to help children with cerebral palsy score better on Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test.
Wearable Sensing made the sensors and helmet that are used with Neurable’s software.
The company offered a demo of its approach at the South by Southwest festival as part of a panel on the future of human-computer interaction.
Ramses Alcaide, the co-founder and CEO of the Michigan-based business, which also has offices in Pasadena, California, explained how the technology works. Say you’re shopping at the grocery store and you want Lucky Charms cereal. When you see the item on the shelf, your brain makes a connection, even if you only see it using your peripheral vision. It’s a quick process– it happens in 300 milliseconds, hence the term P300.
The person testing the device wore a helmet embedded with sensors and hooked up to a software program running on a laptop. A screen showed the Peabody test with images marked 1-4. The numbers flashed and the test participant focused on the number that matched her answer. If the test showed an image that didn’t match her answer, she focused on an “X” that rejected that choice.
About 50 percent of children with cerebral palsy have an intellectual deficit, Alcaide said. So if they get a test score that reflects their abilities, they’ll get an education which reflects that and the right kind of physical therapy to match their abilities, making a huge difference for the rest of their lives.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
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In addition to children with CP, the company also views it as a way to help children with autism test better. It could also be used to help people who have suffered brain trauma or a stroke.
Alcaide said it has done a pilot of 50 children — 25 with CP and 25 without CP. He added that it is currently seeking funding to create a commercial version of its brain-computer interface software.
So far, brain-computer interfaces have focused on concentration, such as with Puzzlebox and its sensors that help people operate a toy helicopter with their mind. When the user concentrates, the helicopter goes up, when their concentration wanes, the copter descends. Neurable’s approach opens up a whole new way of using mind control to help vulnerable patient populations demonstrate the full extent of their abilities.
