One user played Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” on an Android tablet piano app and later bought some groceries online. Another sent a few texts and then checked the weather forecast. A third browsed through some videos before firing up Stevie Nicks on Pandora.
They didn’t use their fingers to type commands or their voices to navigate the the interface.
They used their noggins, specifically the motor cortex region of their brains where a baby aspirin-size chip had been implanted as part of a new study
[…]
Each participant was asked to try out seven common apps on the tablet: email, chat, web browser, video sharing, music streaming, a weather program and a news aggregator. The researchers also asked the users if they wanted any additional apps, and subsequently added the keyboard app, grocery shopping on Amazon, and a calculator.
Photo: BrainGate CollaborationA BrainGate trial participant who is a musician played a snippet of ‘Ode to Joy’ on a digital piano interface.
The participants made up to 22 point-and-click selections per minute and typed up to 30 characters per minute in email and text programs. What’s more, all three participants really enjoyed using the tablet, says Hochberg.
