How Those With Impaired Limb Movement Can Communicate On-Screen

Not everyone has the ability to sit down and type a message to friends and family. Brain-computer interface technology makes it possible for even those with limited movement to create messages via mental handwriting. Essentially, the computer reads your mind and takes the information from the brain activity it finds and translates it into real-life action.

Around one in every 100,000 people suffers from locked-in syndrome, which is complete paralysis of the voluntary muscles. It’s a neurological disorder that renders the sufferers unable to speak or move. Others suffer from brain stem strokes and other types of disease or injury, which means they can no longer move and talk as they once did. With this in mind, scientists decided to try and find a better way for these people to communicate.

History of Computer-Mediated Communication

There have been many attempts to help those trapped in their body with communication. Long before computers, there were boards with images on them and people could direct their gaze at the item they wanted. This worked well for choosing a drink or activity, but it didn’t allow for extensive communication.

Once computers came into the equation, it was possible to use mind-spellers, where a keyboard on-screen presented flashing letters. Each one would flash at a different speed. By focusing on the letter, it caused a neural response that was evident enough for the sensors on the person’s head to recognize what it was. The letter could then appear on the screen. The method was slow, with experts reaching up to 60 characters per minute.

Another method that was the standard for some time used implanted intracortical electrodes to help people control a cursor on-screen by visualizing movement. They would then click an on-screen keyboard to type out the message. This managed to hit up to 40 characters per minute and was not terribly efficient.

Now, it’s possible to do so much more.

What is Mental Handwriting?

Mental handwriting is a new method of communication for those who are unable to type. While speech-to-text has been around for a long time and has greatly increased in accuracy, it’s not ideal for everyone. Some people may be paralyzed and unable to speak at all. This leaves them with very little in the way of communication.

With mental handwriting, anyone can think of writing a letter and have it appear on the screen. It’s an amazing breakthrough that required scientists to find the neural signals that correspond with writing each letter. They implanted sensors into a patient’s brain to try and analyze which neural signals occurred with each letter and then translated it into actual letters. The patient was able to type roughly 90 characters per minute, making it a feasible method of communication.

The participant in the study had a spinal cord injury that had left him immobile from the neck down. At the age of 65, he was an interesting candidate and was able to write answers or copy sentences posed to him at a speed comparable to a fully-abled 65-year-old typing on a phone.

This new method of communication for those without use of their limbs or voice is so new that it hasn’t yet been made available to the public. Teams from Stanford University published a report on their findings in Nature, a medical journal, in May of 2021.

How Thought Powered Communication Works

Over time, scientists have found multiple ways to help those with disabilities “talk” and communicate with others. From speech recognition and pointing to words to using eye movements to point at things, three have been many manifestations of communication. However, this new method actually uses the brain’s ability to remember movement as a way to create text.

When your body stops working due to an injury or a disease, that doesn’t necessarily stop your brain from knowing how to walk or hold a pencil. It can still do these things mentally, but your body doesn’t respond. It can be quite frustrating, of course, but if the ability still remains, it can be used.

Simply attempting to write letters, even if there was no actual movement, made it possible to capture those neural signals and turn them into actual letters.

Other Uses for BCI Technology

The ability to interpret neural signals and convert them into words or movements is very powerful. It’s not only used for mental handwriting, however.

It’s thought that it would be possible to use implanted electrodes to help boost memory for someone suffering from memory problems. For someone suffering amnesia after a stroke or dealing with Alzheimer’s, this could be ground-breaking technology.

Control of prosthetic limbs is another area where computers meet brains and allow the brain to imagine the movement of the arm, either raising it, closing the fingers, etc. This information is transmitted to the computer and then translated to make movement possible. The technology is already available but is still in development.

This same technology may be used to augment the existing body, even if it works perfectly. For example, who hasn’t longed for an extra hand sometimes? With BCI, it would actually be possible to create a third hand for people to use simply by directing their thoughts.

Finally, there is the ability to use BCI tech to implement warnings when a person is too sleepy for driving or managing machinery. It could also possibly detect if someone was having a stroke or another health issue and alert authorities.

Brain-computer interfacing is a huge step into the future. For those without the ability to move their eyes or those who are blind, it’s necessary to have another method of speaking. Mental handwriting gives that ability back to them. Now it is simply a matter of waiting for the scientists to perfect things so they can be made available to the open market.