Philip Low

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“We’d Like To Find A Way To Bypass His Body, Pretty Much Hack His Brain”

June 26, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

As Stephen Hawking’s motor skills further deteriorate, plans are afoot to tap directly into his head with cutting edge technology. From the Telegraph:

“Hawking, 70, has been working with scientists at Standford University who are developing a the iBrain – a tool which picks up brain waves and communicates them via a computer.

The scientist, who has motor neurone disease and lost the power of speech nearly 30 years ago, currently uses a computer to communicate but is losing the ability as the condition worsens.

But he has been working with Philip Low, a professor at Stanford and inventor of the iBrain, a brain scanner that measures electrical activity.

‘We’d like to find a way to bypass his body, pretty much hack his brain,’ said Prof Low.

Researchers will unveil their latest results at a conference in Cambridge next month, and may demonstrate the technology on Hawking.”

 

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“The iBrain Can Collect Data In Real Time In A Person’s Own Bed”

April 4, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

From “A Little Device Trying to Read Your Thoughts,” David Ewing Duncan’s New York Times article about Stephen Hawking adopting the iBrain:

“Already surrounded by machines that allow him, painstakingly, to communicate, the physicist Stephen Hawking last summer donned what looked like a rakish black headband that held a feather-light device the size of a small matchbox.

Called the iBrain, this simple-looking contraption is part of an experiment that aims to allow Dr. Hawking — long paralyzed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease — to communicate by merely thinking.

The iBrain is part of a new generation of portable neural devices and algorithms intended to monitor and diagnose conditions like sleep apnea, depression and autism. Invented by a team led by Philip Low, a 32-year-old neuroscientist who is chief executive of NeuroVigil, a company based in San Diego, the iBrain is gaining attention as a possible alternative to expensive sleep labs that use rubber and plastic caps riddled with dozens of electrodes and usually require a patient to stay overnight.

‘The iBrain can collect data in real time in a person’s own bed, or when they’re watching TV, or doing just about anything,’ Dr. Low said.”

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Main title music by Philip Glass for Errol Morris’ 1991 Hawking film:

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