Apple Partners With Gates-Bezos-Backed Brain-Computer Interface Synchron To Use Smart Devices With The Power Of Your Mind
Bill Gates’ Gates Frontier and Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions invested in the company as part of a Series-C $75 million campaign.
You may have heard of Elon Musk’s controversial brain-computer interface (BCI) device Neuralink, a chip that is implanted in the user’s skull and connected to the brain, allowing people to telepathically control devices with the power of their mind and perhaps restore other functions such as blindness and lameness. But there is another lesser-known company striving to provide something similar and recently made mainstream media headlines by putting itself back into the foray.
Australian-based BCI firm Synchron announced on May 13th a collaboration with Apple that would iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro integration, giving users the power to operate these devices with the power of their minds.
The company says on its website: “Synchron’s BCI aims to restore the control of a touchscreen for patients with limited hand mobility using only their thoughts. Our technology is designed to work inside the body to help enable everyday tasks like scheduling a medical appointment, texting a friend, or purchasing a special gift.”
Unlike Musk’s Neuralink, where a small part of the skull has to be removed, the Stentrode BCI travels through blood vessels and reaches the brain, where the device converts brain waves into signals, allowing the person to send texts, emails, make ecommerce transactions, and interact with smart devices.
Roughly two years ago to date, The WinePress reported that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded a study that oversaw the first patient for testing in the U.S.
Before 2022 came to a close, Bill Gates’ Gates Frontier and Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions invested in the company as part of a Series-C $75 million campaign.
According to a press release from the company,
With the announcement of the new protocol from Apple - BCI HID for short - neural interfaces are now formally recognized as a native input category coming to Apple devices. This advancement enables hands-free, voice-free digital access for individuals with motor impairment such as ALS, stroke, or spinal cord injury. Synchron’s BCI system will seamlessly integrate with Apple’s built-in accessibility features, including Switch Control, giving users an intuitive way to use their devices and laying the foundation for a new generation of cognitive input technologies.
[…] BCI HID eliminates those barriers by translating neural signals, captured by Synchron’s Stentrode™ implant, into real-time digital commands. […] This closed-loop system can exchange contextual information, like screen layout and UI elements to optimize decoding accuracy and user experience.
Dr. Tom Oxley, CEO and Co-Founder at Synchron, said in a comment:
“This marks a defining moment for human-device interaction. BCI is more than an accessibility tool, it’s a next-generation interface layer. Apple is helping to pioneer a new interface paradigm, where brain signals are formally recognized alongside touch, voice and typing. With BCI recognized as a native input for Apple devices, there are new possibilities for people living with paralysis and beyond.”
Blair Casey, CEO of Team Gleason, which supports people living with ALS in accessing and advancing technology, also commented, saying, “This isn’t just about building tools, it’s about redefining what’s possible for people with disabilities."
The company hinted that they were already working with Apple after Synchron published a video demonstration of the Stentrode device in combination with the NVIDIA Holoscan and Apple Vision Pro, featuring a man with ALS using “The Force,” as the company called it, to “adjust lights, turning on a fan, and even feeding his dog hands-free, voice-free, and touch-free.”
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) also pointed out some of the possibilities the device provides but noting some of its current limitations.
Mark Jackson, an early tester of the Stentrode implant, was able to peer over the ledge of a mountain in the Swiss Alps and feel his legs shake. Jackson can’t stand up, and he wasn’t in Switzerland. He was wearing an Apple virtual-reality headset, which was connected to his implant.
Jackson cautioned that Synchron’s technology is still early in its development. He can’t use it to mimic moving a cursor with a mouse or a touch screen with fingers, so navigation is much slower than normal interaction with a computer or smartphone.
This partnership with Apple is part of a much broader plan for the tech giant as it continues to advance its augmented reality aspect of the company, though investors and analysts believe it would be more prudent for the company to focus on increasing iPhone sales.
"At Apple, accessibility is part of our DNA," said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. "Making technology for everyone is a priority for all of us, and we’re proud of the innovations we’re sharing this year. That includes tools to help people access crucial information, explore the world around them, and do what they love."
This BCI technology is not just limited to Western nations. Last year, China’s Global Times reported on their equivalent to Neuralink and Synchron called Neucyber. The researchers at Chinese Institute for Brain Research in Beijing showcased a monkey with its hands tied up controlling a robotic arm with “just its thoughts” and was able to grab a strawberry.
Zhang Lei, director of Instrumentation Core from the institute said at the time, “While Elon Musk’s startup Neuralink is considered the leading wireless BCI technology in practical use, our algorithm and electrodes are just as capable. However, the challenge lies in integrating the device into a small, discreet device that is safe for brains.”
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
While these bio-tech firms - Neuralink, Synchron, Neucyber, etc. - claim that these devices are to aid those with disabilities is only the initial sales pitch. I have often pointed out that so many of these invasive devices are sold as a betterment for your health, but end up being shoved on the masses for things that have nothing to do with health.
The devices are part of a growing trend to replace smartphones and other smart devices with implants. Rather, it is to achieve the goal of furthering the Internet of Things and Internet of Bodies.
In 2016, Musk tweeted, “Creating a neural lace is the thing that really matters for humanity to achieve symbiosis with machines.”
Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark said at the World Economic Forum in 2022 that smartphone technology will be hardwired into people’s bodies by 2030, made possible by 6G.
“It will definitely happen. I was talking about 6G earlier, which is around 2030. I would say that by then definitely the smartphone as we know it today will not anymore be the usual kind of the most common interface.
“Many of these things will be built directly into our bodies.”
It’s not about health, it’s about becoming a cyborg, plugged into the AI-grid so you can be controlled and lose autonomy. Sound familiar?
Revelation 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: [17] And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. [18] Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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In order to beat AI humans must join with the Borg - Musk