MedGadget | Brain-Computer Interfaces at Home: Interview with Dr. Solzbacher of Blackrock Neurotech

By Conn Hastings

Blackrock Neurotech, a medtech company based in Salt Lake City, has pioneered an array of brain-computer interface technologies. Medgadget last spoke with Blackrock Neurotech a year ago about their thought-to-text brain computer interface, but since the company signed an agreement with a research institution to develop portable brain computer interface (BCI) systems. This partnership will hopefully lead to patients being able to use BCI devices in the comfort of their own home.

At present, such technology currently uses bulky and cumbersome hardware, and therefore requires physical visits to research facilities for people who wish to participate in trials of BCI systems. This limits who can participate in such trials based on their geographical proximity to such a research facility. The plan with this new system is to let a greater variety of people to avail of the technology, and pave the way for a day where such systems are more commonplace and are used as routine assistive technologies for those with paralysis.

Medgadget had an opportunity to speak again with Florian Solzbacher, Ph.D., Co-Founder & Chairman of Blackrock Neurotech and Professor and Chair at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Utah, about the company’s latest technology.

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