The 3D-printed helmet that can read your mind. Could it change the world?

By Mike Riggs
Fields
Neuroscience
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If the farthest frontier of human exploration is outer space, the closest one is inside our skulls. And OpenBCI–that’s short for brain-computer interface–is your headspace sherpa.

Founded by Conor Russomanno and Joel Murphy, OpenBCI developed an open-source interface for translating brain, muscle, and heart activity. With their device, you can not only see what’s happening inside your head and your heart, you can then use that activity to influence the rest of the world outside your body.

10 years from now, we will be a different species. We will still be humans, but we’ll be different humans than we are today. – Conor Russomanno

The potential applications for BCI are huge. Already, the technology has been used to play video games hands-free, control bionic tech, and assess whether comatose patients who can’t move their bodies are nevertheless experiencing conscious thoughts.

In the near future, BCI could vastly enhance our ability to understand technology–and ourselves.

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