SAN JOSE, Calif. — In a warehouse district here, a few young engineers fueled by ramen and energy bars are inventing the future of mind reading.
Paradromics has big ambitions: It wants to squeeze a device the size of a mobile phone into a chip small enough to insert into a human brain, where it would “read” nerve signals and replace senses and abilities lost due to injury or diseases.
For now, the startup’s recently minted Ph.D.s are working in a small warren of scruffy offices and labs to perfect a stuffed-mouse mockup. You’d never guess that it won an $18 million Pentagon contract last month, vaulting it into the top ranks of Silicon Valley companies surging into the field of brain-machine interfaces.
August 29, 1987, 30 years ago, I was hit HEAD-ON on my way back to college. I had a SEVERE TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY. I lost my RIGHT FIELD of VISION from BOTH EYES. I would LOVE to be able to SEE to the RIGHT AGAIN. DO they need a volunteer?