The birth of “everyday” brain-computer interfaces

___

Neurable Rais­es $6 Mil­lion Series A To Build An ‘Every­day’ Brain-Com­put­er Inter­face (Forbes):

“Neurable has announced a $6 mil­lion Series A round of fund­ing to move beyond VR appli­ca­tions and devel­op the every­day brain-com­put­er inter­face. These will take a head­phones form fac­tor and will tar­get con­sumers. This marks an excit­ing advance­ment for brain-com­put­er inter­faces (BCI) … Neurable raised its ini­tial $2 mil­lion invest­ment to devel­op the soft­ware by putting an EEG head­set on people’s heads, putting them in front of a com­put­er screen and ask­ing them to dri­ve a remote con­trolled car around with their mind to show them how easy it was. The com­pa­ny proved that BCIs can, and do, work.

Neurable CEO, Dr. Ram­ses Alcaide, explained to me why VR was impor­tant for the com­pa­ny ear­ly on: “We used vir­tu­al real­i­ty as a vehi­cle to demon­strate key con­cepts and prove the ear­ly val­ue of brain-com­put­er inter­faces. We saw an oppor­tu­ni­ty to deliv­er val­ue to cus­tomers with men­tal con­trol and affec­tive com­put­ing, two new dimen­sions for how humans inter­act with machines. We also need­ed a form fac­tor that could shoul­der the elec­trode require­ments we had for what we were try­ing to achieve.”

This lat­est financ­ing, led by M Ven­tures, with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of Innospark Ven­tures and exist­ing investors such as Loup Ven­tures and Point Judith Cap­i­tal, will allow Neurable to cre­ate brain-com­put­er inter­faces that are acces­si­ble, intu­itive, and user-friendly—bringing the ben­e­fits of neu­rotech­nol­o­gy to the masses.”

News in Context:

• Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
• Q&A: What does the Face­book acqui­si­tion of CTRL-Labs mean for Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy and Aug­ment­ed & Vir­tu­al Reality?