DeKALB – The NIU department of Industrial and Systems Engineering was awarded a grant to work on technology that would allow brain-to brain-communication.

A $600,000 grant from the National Sciences Foundation was approved October 1 to start research for communicating with others by thinking using a brain-to-brain interface (B2BI).

These systems make use of a brain-computer interface (BCI) and a computer-brain interface (CBI) to facilitate communication between people. The BCI reads brain activity and the CBI will then send that information to another person’s brain.

The goal is to communicate brain to brain without computer interpretation while being non-invasive.

“This could become a completely new way for people to connect and communicate,” Chang Soo Nam, the principal investigator, said.

The results of this research could improve the quality of life and rate of recovery for non-communicative patients and stroke victims by allowing them to communicate brain to brain with doctors.