According to a report from the South China Morning Post, the researchers managed to program the robot to perform basic tasks such as avoiding obstacles and grasping objects using a neural interface chip.
This innovation represents a significant leap forward in brain-computer interfaces (BCI), a field aimed at merging brain activity with external computing power.
BCI has become a trending topic, with companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink introduction of implantable chips that allow devices to be controlled with the mind.
What the researchers said about the technology
Researchers of Tianjin University He said it was the “world’s first open-source brain-on-a-chip complex and intelligent information interaction system” and could lead to the development of brain-like computing.
In a statement to the state-run Science and Technology Daily, Tianjin University Vice President Ming Dong said: “(It is) a technology that uses a ‘brain’ grown in vitro, such as brain organoids – coupled with an electrode chip to form a “brain-on-a-chip,” which encodes and decodes stimulation feedback.
Research conducted at Tianjin University promises the creation of a new era of human-robot hybrid intelligence.
What are brain organoids?
Brain organoids are tiny clumps of brain-like tissue. They are made of special cells that can develop into many different types of cells. These cells are usually found only in very young embryos.
These scientists implanted these brain organoids into real brains. They discovered that these organoids could connect and function with real brain tissue.
The scientists wrote about it in an unedited manuscript published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Brain from Oxford University Press.
“Transplantation of human cerebral organoids into living brains is a novel method to advance organoid development and function. Organoid grafts have a functional host-derived vasculature and exhibit advanced maturation,” the team wrote.
