In this episode of La Loupe, Xavier Yvon deciphers the promises of brain-machine interfaces with Victor Garcia, journalist in the Sciences department of L’Express.
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The team: Xavier Yvon (presentation), Charlotte Baris (writing), Marion Galard (editing) and Jules Krot (directing).
Credits: Euronews, UPMC
Music and dressing: Emmanuel Herschon / Studio Torrent
Picture credits: CEA/EFPL/CHUV/UNIL
Logo: Anne-Laure Chapelain / Benjamin Chazal
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Xavier Yvon: You may have seen this video, without really being interested in it, where a man slowly crosses the street on a pedestrian crossing, holding a walker in front of him. Surely that doesn’t sound very extraordinary to you.
However, if we take a closer look, there are several intriguing elements. On his head, he wears a kind of helmet, from which protrude wires that are connected to his waist and to the walker, itself equipped with a kind of computer.
The man we see walking shouldn’t be able to walk: he is a paraplegic, and has lost the use of his legs for 12 years. It looks like a miracle, but there was no divine intervention: this man walks again thanks to what is called a brain-machine interface. A revolutionary technology that aims to regain control of one’s movements through thought.
If the idea opens incredible possibilities for people with disabilities, some already imagine manipulating their phone with their brain. So, will brain-machine interfaces create the augmented human of tomorrow? That’s the question we’re looking at today.
For further
PODCAST. Computers with human cells to boost AI
Controlling his legs by thought: the scientific prowess that allows a paraplegic to walk again
The crazy promises of Elon Musk
A computer to read the minds of the disabled and give them the floor