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Human-computer interface, deep learning and explainable AI

African-American woman in white shirt behind superimposed computer graphics.

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

The human body is an important source of big data. Biometric data can be collected to track health status and actively improve quality of life. Though data analysis has recently been actively used as a tool for industrial innovation, biometric data analysis seems to approach the essence of engineering in terms of developing technologies that benefit human beings.

In April 2022, NeuraLink, a company co-founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, released a video of a monkey playing a game with an implanted chip in its brain. In the video, a chip and more than 2,000 electrodes are implanted in a 9-year-old monkey’s brain and a game similar to Pong is played using a joystick. All the while, the monkey was given a banana smoothie as a reward.

During the learning process, brain wave data was wirelessly collected from the chip to train a machine-learning algorithm. Specifically, the monkey was performing a motor imagery task where it imagines moving its hand. Afterward, even if the joystick is disconnected, the game is played only through the monkey’s brain activity as this imaginary motor movement is repeated.

Continue reading the full article by ISE Communications here.