What you’re watching in the video above doesn’t involve cameras or motion sensors. It’s the kind of brain-to-machine, body-to-interaction interface most of us associate with science fiction. And while the technology has made the occasional appearance in unusual, niche commercial applications, it’s poised now to blow wide open for music – open as in free and open source.

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) researchers have invented a new, noninvasive method for recording patterns of brain activity and using them to steer a partially autonomous robot so that “locked in” patients can interact with others and appear physically present — without a lot of effort and concentration.

An $18.5 million grant to establish an Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering based at the University of Washington (UW) has been announced by the National Science Foundation .

Researchers will develop new technologies for amputees, for spinal cord injuries, and people with cerebral palsy, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, or age-related neurological disorders.

Tim Mullen, Richard Warp, Adam Jansch
NIME 2011, Oslo Nofway

A bolt implanted in the skull would contain an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) microchip under the skin in the skull. It would pick up and process neural signals, and transmit them via the skin directly to a receiver located in or near the target muscle group (such as an arm or hand).

A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain–machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between a brain and an external device. BCIs are often aimed at assisting, augmenting or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions

My name is Yee Chieh, though I often go by “Denise”. I’m a 2nd year Ph.D. student at Georgia Tech in Human-Centered Computing, where I am advised by Melody Moore Jackson and work in the Brainlab. My research focuses mainly on Brain-Computer Interfaces and how they can be used to measure and express creativity

* Hand, eye and voice control technology emerging

* 'Natural user interface' pushing into mainstream

CES: Thought-controlled iPad app gets in your head

There was a time when touch screen interfaces existed only in the realm of science fiction. Now that the iPhone is common fare, what comes next? Mind-reading interfaces, of course—and according to PLX Devices, the age of brain-wave controlled technology may be closer than we think.

John Rogers led a team of materials science engineers at the the University of Illinois to develop silk brain implants that can be used to control and monitor seizures and help transmit signals to a prosthetic.

Scientists Break Brain/Twitter Barrier
University of Wisconsin-Madison biomedical engineering doctoral student Adam Wilson has successfully tested a "brain wave monitor" to Twitter publishing interface, allowing him to compose a message merely by thinking and publish it to the arguably too-popular microblogging service.

Intel researchers in Pittsburgh told journalists today that brain implants are harnessing human brain waves to surf the Internet, manipulate documents, and much more.

Using our heads ... to move our limbs

Interest in developing an effective communication interface connecting the human brain and a computer has grown rapidly over the past decade. The brain-computer interface (BCI) would allow humans to operate computers, wheelchairs, prostheses, and other devices, using brain signals only.