Microsoft has applied to patent a brain control interface, so you’ll be able to “think” your way around a computer device, hands free.Last year, Facebook claimed to have 60 engineers engaged in BCI [brain computer interface] but Microsoft isn’t going to take this sitting down. It’s erm, sitting down and thinking really hard.The application Changing an application state using neurological data was filed last year, and published last week. The inventors recently filed a related patent for a continuous motion controller powered by the brain. (US 2017/0329392: Continuous Motion Controls Operable Using Neurological Data).
Source: Microsoft wants to patent mind control • The Register
The problem is that the actual technology to do this doesn’t exist and they have nothing like a working prototype. Considering brain control has existed for some time, it’s a bit silly that this kind of conceptual work can actually be patented by someone with money. I can come up with loads of patentable ideas, but the bridge to creating some sort of working product is one too far for me. And the costs of patenting all my imaginations are far too high. This system basically puts small inventors at a huge disadvantage, but also pushes out innovation by small companies as they find that technologies they have invented and worked out are suddenly patented after the fact by large companies.
Robin Edgar
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