Elon Musk and his team at Neuralink have reportedly asked the public for help in solving the company’s data compression problems. reportThe company’s main focus is providing mobility to people who are paralyzed, blind or visually impaired.
Neuralink’s device is attached to a person’s skull and uses wires to scan neural activity before transmitting wireless signals. The company has had some success with its first patient, quadriplegic Noland Arbaugh. Played a chess game using technology Just use your brain.
“You’re essentially asking for a miracle.”
The reason for this success is that the company has been able to process the data in a way that allows for hands-free chess playing, but the company is now asking for the public’s help in solving the data compression problem.
As it stands, Debrief reports that brain implants generate roughly 200 times the amount of brain data per second that can currently be transmitted wirelessly. The company is currently exploring new compression algorithms that could help close the gap between brain data and the amount of data that can be transmitted wirelessly.
company Posted a challenge “Neuralink is looking for new approaches to this compression problem and great engineers to work on it. If you have a solution, please email us at compression@neuralink.com,” the company posted on its website.
“Entries will be scored based on the compression ratio they achieve across different sets of electrode recordings. Bonus points will be awarded for optimizing latency and power efficiency. Submissions must include source code and build scripts. Must build on at least Linux,” the challenge continues.
CBC report Neuralink kicked off the challenge with an hour’s worth of video recordings of the raw brains of monkeys playing a simple video game, known as MindPong. The ability to control the video game was one of the earliest demonstrations of a brain implant.
Some social media users have dismissed the challenge as “impossible,” with some even speculating that the Neuralink team organized the challenge to prove to Musk that it’s impossible.
Those who think the challenge is impossible are probably right, said Karl Martin, chief technology officer at data science company Integrate.ai, who completed his doctoral dissertation at the University of Toronto, where he focused on data compression and security.
He said it’s possible to compress EEG signals by a 7-to-1 ratio, but aiming for a 200-to-1 ratio “goes well beyond what we would expect to be the fundamental limit of what’s possible.”
“It’s essentially asking for a miracle.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censorship and sign up for our newsletter to get stories like this one directly to your inbox. Register here!
