Mind over matter: brain chip allows paralysed man to write

As he imagines handwriting letters, they appear before him as typed text thanks to a new brain implant. The 65-year-old is "typing" at a speed similar to his peers tapping on a smartphone, using a device that could one day help paralysed people communicate quickly and easily. The research could benefit people suffering spinal cord injuries, strokes or motor neurone disease, said Frank Willett, a research scientist at Stanford University and lead author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. "Imagine if you could only move your eyes up and down but couldn't move anything else -- a device like this could enable you to type your thoughts at speeds that are comparable to that of normal handwriting or typing on a smartphone," he told AFP. Existing devices for those with paralysis rely on eye movement or imagining moving a cursor to point and click on letters. But Willett and his team wondered whether thinking about handwriting letters might be another way for people to express themselves.