Mindreach is one of ten projects selected in the category “Born from Knowledge” to go to the conference in Lisbon
Imagine a headset with electrodes that allow a user to control a wheelchair. Or even with a bandolete or a cap. The cap that is today in the laboratory of neurosciences of the Champalimaud Foundation, in Lisbon, can become any one of these objects, keeping the electrodes and the goal: to use brain activity to give orders to units.
The project is called Mindreach, and integrates the list of winners of the government initiative Born from Knowledge, that ensures the participation of academic researchers in Web Summit, one of the largest international events of technology and entrepreneurship, which will take place from 7 to 10 November, in Lisbon.
Nuno Loureiro is the spokesman of the team of four people who, through experience, has noticed that both mice and people “are able to model the brain activity, at the same time that they are experiencing an increase in control of a particular task”. That is, the practice enables people to control a small ball in a computer game, a drone or an aircraft simulator, as they have proven to the scientific experiments made with such a cap.
In the future, with props more practical and aesthetic, such as the bandolete, a headphone or a cap, the uses can go from the control of a wheelchair to an application in diseases such as attention deficit. “Supposedly the final look will be the least intrusive possible, and even what we say fashion, that can pass for a headset (headphones) or a kind of a bandolete, or may even be a cap, with four or five electrodes for making the pickup of the signals of the brain”. The idea is to have “a device miniaturized and without the need to use gel”. “On a day-to-day and to the general public we have in mind an application to games”, says Nuno Loureiro.
The demand of a passport to the Web Summit arose from a need that the researchers had to disclose the project and to receive feedback from technology specialists and others linked to the business environment. In addition, seek “partners who want to collaborate”. And the house work is already being done, in particular with the resource to the application that has advanced with contacts recommended, in the sequence of the references and characteristics given by the researchers. “This application makes things a little bit easier,’ to save time in the consultation of lists of participants.
The first place of the contest “Born from Knowledge” has been assigned to the Audio-in GPS, a location technology global to interior spaces. The goal of this initiative was to stimulate innovation and the ability to learn, understand and undertake based on the training, in scientific research and knowledge. In total, the government has promoted six initiatives to stimulate the Web Summit. One of the contests was the Road2Web Summit, in which they were chosen 66 startups to represent Portugal at the event. The idea is to show the best that Portugal has to offer.
On Thursday were recorded 48 to 100 people at the event, but the organization hopes to reach out to 50 thousand. As DN reported, is provided more security than a high-stakes game of the Champions League: will be mobilized about one thousand officers. The general pass, which started to cost 900 euros, is now in 1245 euros.
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