Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) is catching up rapidly than previous three revolutions. The speed and agility are not only forcing us to change the way we live and work, it is a disruption for many industries traditional approach and business models.
The first Industrial revolution began with the invention of steam engines in circa 1780, the second revolution took place roughly after a century by the invention of electricity and the third revolution with the birth of Internet, electronics and digital computing.
In less than half-century, the fourth industrial revolution is already here with emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology, Internet of Things (IoT) etc.
Technology has become the integral part of our daily life. Day-to-day activities are much dependent on many electronic devices and gadgets around us. In IR4.0 the technology is blurring the boundaries between electronic devices and humans.
Technology is merging more and more into the biological world. Currently there are various small wearable devices and apps available to monitor your heart rate, steps walked, sleep pattern etc to even more advanced electronics like brain controlled gadgets.
Brain controlled gadgets mostly use BCI (Brain Computer Interface) with electroencephalography (EEG) to make real time interaction by just using the brain directly. Commercial brain controlled products are available in market today for personal research purpose and wellness including stress level management, to improve concentration etc[1] [2].
Other than brain controlled gadgets, prosthetic industry is integrating BCI to revolutionise new and advanced way to add senses [3]. The integration is not limiting to legs, foot or arms but extending it into visual prostheses (artificial vision) as well.
Visual neural prostheses is an approach, provides hope to millions of blind people to generate visual perception in their brain using direct stimulation in their visual pathway. Though it is no way near to the level of vision provided by a human eye, but it may help to read large prints for a totally blind human[4] [5].
In our lifetime one creates lots of visual memories. Memory is created by binding neurons together. When electrical impulses traverse through the bonded neuron again, we can retrieve the visual experience from past [6].
The question is whether we are advanced enough today to fetch the information from brain’s visual memory region ? Can we sense the electrical impulses of neurons in the visual memory region to artificially create an image? May be not today, but IR4.0 seems very promising.
Imagine the possibilities if we can capture the visuals from a human brain. How much knowledge we can capture digitally from smart brains around the world. We can take prints of our imagination or of our cherished childhood events. isn’t that cool.
[1]“NextMind,” [Online]. Available: https://www.next-mind.com/
[2]“EMOTIV,” [Online]. Available: https://www.emotiv.com/workplace-wellness-safety-and-productivity-mn8/
[3] T. Abate, “An artificial nerve system developed at Stanford gives prosthetic devices and robots a sense of touch,” 31 May 2018. [Online]. Available: https://news.stanford.edu/2018/05/31/artificial-nerve-system-gives-prosthetic-devices-robots-sense-touch/
[4] N. P. Soroush Niketeghad, “Brain Machine Interfaces for Vision Restoration: The Current State of Cortical Visual Prosthetics,” 07 Sep 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6361050/
[5] NIDEK CO. LTD, “Keys to Visual Prostheses,” [Online]. Available: https://www.nidek-intl.com/aboutus/artificial_sight/about_artificial_sight/point.html
[6] The Conversation, “An electronic chip that makes ‘memories’ is a step towards creating bionic brains,” 16 Jul 2019. [Online]. Available: https://theconversation.com/an-electronic-chip-that-makes-memories-is-a-step-towards-creating-bionic-brains-119741
