Wearable brain imager/BMI technology for structural, vascular and functional extraction

摘要

Portable, low power, low-cost, flexible wearable Brain Machine Interfaces (BMIs) for real time brain imaging, with far higher potential spatial resolution than EEG, are being designed and prototyped using new chip architectures. Preliminary depth-indexed readings of real-time vascular and probable neural activity in the brain have been demonstrated using arrays of ultra-high dynamic range (160dB DANL) 1cm2 Ultra Wide Band (UWB) pulser/antenna/sampler assemblies. These ICs generate 5-300ps pulses and detect the resulting reflections from brain tissue boundaries. They cancel out 1/f noise, and are sensitive enough to detect energy reflected from deep tissues, as well as the signal transmitted through even the longest dimensions of the head, and display vascular pulsation and, for the first time, rudimentary indications of functional brain activity.