iPad, iPhone Implant That Changed The Way People With Disabilities Use These Devices

A surgically implanted device, at the clinical trial stage, may allow people with disabilities to operate Apple Inc.’s AAPL iPhones and iPads by using their brains, it was reported in November 2022.

What Happened: The device called Synchron Switch made by Synchron, a brain-computer interface company, works with a range of sensors, known as the Stentrode. The sensors are inserted into the brain via a blood vessel.

Users can then control the Synchron Switch wirelessly through their chest, according to Semafor.

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The technology works like other accessibility features such as alternate switches. The only difference is that it registers users’ brain waves instead of a foot tap or a nod of the head, reported Apple Insider at the time.

Rodney Gorham, a retired software salesman in Australia with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, was one of the six people using this device.

When Gorham thought about tapping his foot, his iPad registers the message as a finger tap on the screen, allowing him to use Synchron Switch to send single-word text messages.

"We're excited about iOS and Apple products because they're so ubiquitous. And this would be the first brain switch input into the device," said Tom Oxley, Synchron's co-founder and CEO.

Why It's Important: Synchron was the first company to get FDA approval to run clinical trials on a computer-brain implant. The technology could be seen as a massive boon for patients with severe mobility limitations, the Apple Insider report noted. 

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This story was originally published on Nov. 3, 2022.

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