Brain-computer interfaces have shown great potential for improving the quality of life of people with disabilities. serious illness or disability. Neuralink has become one of the biggest companies in the sector, and thanks to its implant, it has achieved that its first patients are able to control computers with such precision and speed that they can even play video games.

This is just the first step towards a future in which these implants, which create an interface between the brain and the computer system, will increasingly allow us to overcome physical problems and diseases that can severely limit us. The future looks promising and the next Neuralink project confirms it as Elon Musk’s company is working on it implant to help blind people.

The FDA in the United States has given the green light to Blindsight, a device that aims to restore sight to blind people, both those born blind and those blinded by disease or accident. According to Neuralink, It does not matter that they have lost both eyes, or even that they have no optic nerves, The only requirement for this implant to work is that the visual cortex, located at the lower back of the brain, be intact.

A vision with Atari-like graphics that will improve over the years, says Neuralink

To avoid unrealistic expectations, Elon Musk, co-founder of Neuralink, explained that the vision that will be achieved with this implant will initially be of very low quality, with simple shapes and figures like the graphics of an Atari console, but has the potential to improve until out of natural vision.

There will come a point where we will be able to see like a normal person, and future developments in this technology will allow us to have ultraviolet, infrared vision and even radar waves. Impressive, no doubt, but it’s important not to get carried away with expectations and wait to see how this technology develops.

It would be fantastic if this came to fruition, as it would almost completely end blindness. I say “almost” because in those cases where the blindness is caused by cortical damage, this implant would not work. It is becoming increasingly clear that the connection between science and technology it can usher us into a new golden age as a speciesin fact, it’s already starting to help us overcome limitations and achieve things that would have seemed like science fiction just a few years ago.

AI generated image.