BCI Pioneer (and 2024 B-CRATOS Webinar participant) Ian Burkhart has recently co-authored a comprehensive review of clinical trials for implantable BCI in Nature Reviews Bioengineering!

Importantly, Ian and his co-authors not only review the history of BCI trials, but provide valuable insights regarding a pathway forward regarding patient ethics, a need for BCI standards, diversity in recruited volunteers, and other needs/barriers for progress.  The truly leave no stone unturned in covering everything from patient participants to research groups to technologies to the practicality of future clinical products.

And given Ian’s unique position as a former implantable BCI study participant, such perspective is invaluable for the field.  We expect this review to be a core resource for those wishing to better understand the history, present, and future of the field.

The review nicely compiles a list of emerging electrodes as of December 2023, and one notes the ever-growing number of data channels these devices aim to collect.  One can imagine that with multiple such devices implanted, we will see exponential increases in the amount and complexity of data collected in BCI of the future.   To take advantage of the full potential of such data, we will need next-generation wireless technologies capable of transmitting it for analysis and storage.  At B-CRATOS, we aim to develop such technologies to bring big data BCI systems to impactful real-world applications through improved integration within the body and to devices outside of it.  We also expect that by developing next-gen wireless technologies for implantable systems, patient acceptance, usability, and safety can be greatly improved over current systems.

 

Find the full article here!

Between 1 and 4 September 2024, the 10th IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics held in Heidelberg, Germany. This conference aims to highlight the theoretical and practical challenges linked with the integration of robotics and mechatronics into medicine and biology.

In particular, our colleague Robinson Guachi from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna participated with the paper “𝐌𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐝: 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐩𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬”. Here the summary of such an amazing presentation:

Human ability to manipulate and grasp objects relies heavily on tactile information from the skin, which the brain uses to guide motor actions. With advancements in neuroprosthetics, there is growing interest in integrating advanced tactile sensors into prosthetic hands. The paper presented during the conference, supported by the European B-Cratos project, proposes a systematic approach for designing and integrating triboelectric-based electronic skin (e-skin) into a prosthetic hand. It outlines the identification of technical requirements, material selection for soft skin, and optimization of sensor placement on the finger.  

In May 2024, we held our fourth in-person consortium meeting at LINKS Foundation in Turin. We shared updates and goals for each Work Package and discussed future plans for B-CRATOS. The meeting included general sessions, focused discussions on specific experiments and setups, and a tour of the LINKS Foundation.

Over the two days, we had productive discussions, and each partner left Italy with renewed energy and updated plans for B-CRATOS.