Neuralink has shared a video which appears to show a monkey playing a video game. That’s fairly unusual, but what makes the video even stranger is that the monkey is playing the video game with just its mind. Neuralink is a company owned by Elon Musk, who also owns the car company Tesla and the rocket company Space X. Neuralink is working to develop devices that could allow people to control things using just their brains.
The monkey in the video is called Pager. Pager has two of Neuralink’s special “Link” devices planted in his brain by a surgeon. These devices are connected to 2,048 wires which lead to the parts of Pager’s brain that control movements of the arms and hands.
Scientists taught Pager to play a video game. At first, Pager controlled the video game using a joystick, which is a normal gaming controller. But as Pager played, his Link devices wirelessly sent out information about the signals his brain was using to control his arms and hands. Neuralink’s scientists recorded all of these signals. Then they used computers to match up the signals from Pager’s brain to the movements that his hands were actually doing. This was challenging work and the scientists counted on artificial intelligence(AI) to help them decode(解码) Pager’s brain signals.
Neuralink wants to make it possible for humans who have lost the ability to control their bodies to interact with the world around them. Mr. Musk says that in the near future Neuralink hopes to allow a paralyzed(瘫痪的) person to control a smartphone just by thinking. One day, the system will be able to send this information in a different way, allowing paralyzed people to use their arms or legs again.
【小题1】What does the company Neuralink focus on?A.The latest style of cars. | B.The manned spacecraft. |
C.The movements of the monkey. | D.The equipment applied to brain control. |
A.By relying on artificial intelligence. |
B.By looking through the brain information. |
C.By combining the joystick with computers. |
D.By comparing signals with received information. |
A.To serve the disabled for a better life. | B.To develop some games for monkeys. |
C.To learn more about animals’ behaviors. | D.To help the company make more profits. |
A.Environment. | B.Technology. | C.Discovery. | D.Society. |