On September 3rd 2014, a research team announced that they had successfully transmitted the thoughts of one human being to another across a distance of 5000 miles. The team composed of researchers from Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Starlab Barcelona in Spain, and Axilum Robotics in Strasbourg, France made the break through by using technology to send a message from India to France.
The experiment involved one person wearing a wireless electroencephalogram that was linked to the to the internet. This person thought of the words "hola," or "ciao." The persons thoughts were then translated into binary code or 1's and 0's, by a computer. The code was then transmitted via email to the receiving location where it was received by three other participant who wore TMS headsets that stimulated their visual cortex. The three recipients did not hear sounds, but reported seeing flashes of light that corresponded to the message.
The researchers feel that this first successful attempt may pave the way for bypassing or complimenting more traditional means of communication. However, more tests will be necessary to improve the experiment's overall performance, as the bit rate for data transfer were as low as two bits per minute. They expect bit rates to improve with advances in computer to brain technology. The researchers believe that brain to brain communication technology may serve to change how humans communicate with each other in the future.
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