Scientists at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg have conducted a new experiment to connect the human brain directly to the world wide web.
Scientists have said that the connection of the human brain directly to the Internet was done for the first time in history. The project is called Brainternet, and the gathered data it will be used to create next-generation interfaces. Using a special oscilloscope called Emotiv, which records the signals generated by the human brain, the stream of information is transferred to a Raspberry Pi, which in real time converts it into data onto a website. Anyone can monitor the results of the experiment online. Project Director Adam Pantanowitz noted that this is a new frontier in developing new systems for interaction between computers and the human brain.
"Ultimately, we're aiming to enable interactivity between the user and their brain so that the user can provide a stimulus and see the response. Brainternet can be further improved to classify recordings through a smartphone app that will provide data for a machine-learning algorithm. In future, there could be information transferred in both directions – inputs and outputs to the brain," - Pantanowitz.