Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Technology => Topic started by: gravitymall on 28/07/2020 21:12:49
-
A quote from an article titled: "Ultra-low power brain implants find meaningful signal in grey matter noise" that reduces the power of neural interfaces.
"By tuning into a subset of brain waves, University of Michigan researchers have dramatically reduced the power requirements of neural interfaces while improving their accuracy—a discovery that could lead to long-lasting brain implants that can both treat neurological diseases and enable mind-controlled prosthetics and machines.
The team, led by Cynthia Chestek, associate professor of biomedical engineering and core faculty at the Robotics Institute, estimated a 90% drop in power consumption of neural interfaces by utilizing their approach."
-
Sure - if you are looking for delta waves with a frequency band of 1-4Hz, then having a sensor that accurately plots the potential of nerve spikes every 1ms is going to waste a lot of power.
Your measurement system must be fit for purpose - in this case, it must be optimized for the type signals it is monitoring, and the constraints of power supply and available communication channels (having wires coming out of someone's scalp is a bacterial invitation to a brain infection).
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_oscillation#Overview
-
Depends on how you interpret "tuning in to brain waves". There are some fun radio receivers that select the "wanted" frequency and use all the other electromagnetic noise coming down the aerial to power an amplifier. So according to the description, these implants could be using the remainder of the brain electrical activity to power a detector that selectively amplifies one particular frequency.