Synchron, a US-based brain interface startup backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, is working on technology designed to transform daily life for people with paralysis.
The company, which had in December announced a $75 million financing round that included funding from the investment firms of Gates and Bezos, is one of the emerging crop of companies testing technology in the brain-computer interface industry, CNBC reported.
Its Synchron Switch allows patients to operate technology such as cursors and smart home devices using only their minds. It is implanted through blood vessels and the experimental technology has been tested on three patients in the US and four in Australia so far, the report stated.
“I’ve seen moments between patient and partner, or patient and spouse, where it’s incredibly joyful and empowering to have regained an ability to be a little bit more independent than before,” Synchron CEO Tom Oxley told CNBC. “It helps them engage in ways that we take for granted.”
With this, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have entered the growing brain-computer interface (BCI) industry whose best-known company was Neuralink, thanks to founder and tech billionaire Elon Musk's high profile.
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Interestingly, Musk too had announced last year that Neuralink was working on a brain implant that would allow humans to communicate with computers through their thoughts.
"We've submitted I think most of our paperwork to the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) and we think probably in about six months we should be able to have our first Neuralink in a human," Musk added. "We've been working hard to be ready for our first human (implant), and obviously we want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device in a human.
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