Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, Nov. 3, Apple's products have always been very barrier-free, and the company itself has done a good job in this area, but other companies and researchers across the industry are developing innovative new ways to use iPhone and iPad to improve accessibility.

New York-based Synchron is working on computer brain implantation technology that allows patients to use their brains to control iPhone or iPad, according to Semafor.

It is reported that Synchron currently has six patients using its "Synchron Switch" device, which is surgically implanted into the patient's brain. Synchron is the first company to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for clinical trials of computer brain implantation.

Tom Oxley, co-founder and CEO of Synchron, explained that the skills required to implant sensors are "ordinary". The sensor array made by Synchron, known as "Stentrode", is inserted into the top of the brain through blood vessels during minimally invasive surgery. It is wirelessly controlled by the Synchron Switch of the patient's chest. Oxley says the skills needed to implant Stentrode are common, and this simplicity is key to the company's business strategy. Implanting devices directly into the brain requires neurosurgery, which is a discipline that lacks doctors.

CTOnews.com learned that there is currently a patient using Synchron Switch through an Apple device. The patient is Rodney Gotham, a retired software salesman in Melbourne, Australia, who surgically implanted the device into his brain at Melbourne Royal Hospital.

Gotham, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, relies on iPad as his main means of communication. Synchron Switch works by converting Gotham's ideas into input actions on an iPad display, and it is reported that when he "thinks of tiptoeing his feet, his iPad records it as a tapping of his fingers on the screen".

For now, Synchron's research is still in its early stages, but the company is thought to be well ahead of its competitors. Apple itself is working on similar technologies, funding a team at Carnegie Mellon University to study computer-to-human interfaces, according to the report.

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