Brain implant lets man with paralysis fly a virtual drone by thought

A man with paralysis who had electrodes implanted in his brain can pilot a virtual drone through an obstacle course simply by imagining moving his fingers. His brain signals are interpreted by an AI model and then used to control a simulated drone. Brain-computer interface (BCI) research has made huge strides in recent years, allowing people with paralysis to precisely control a mouse cursor and dictate speech to computers by imagining writing words with a pen. But so far, they haven't yet shown great promise in complex applications with multiple inputs. Now, Matthew Willsey at the University of Michigan and his colleagues have created an algorithm that allows a user to trigger four discrete signals by imagining moving their fingers and thumb.