I've posted before about advances in brain-computer interface technology and this latest advance involves one of the hot topics of the day - Twitter. The micro-blogging service has been in the news a lot lately, just a week or two ago Oprah sent her first tweet and Ashton Kutcher and CNN Breaking News each surpassed 1 million Twitter followers. Twitter has become part of the popular lexicon and firmly established as part of pop culture. And now for the neurotech angle: What if you could Twitter just by thinking it? Scientists at the University of Wisconsin have been working on brain-computer interfaces to help paralyzed patients and they have used the technology to allow a user to send messages to Twitter without typing them in. This is a very promising technology that not only demonstrates the utility of Twitter but also opens up a world of communication for those whose world would otherwise be very limited.
Photo: UW-Madison
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