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The University of Michigan
Direct Brain Interface (UM-DBI) project is unique among brain-computer
interface (BCI) research groups in its combination of many years of BCI
research and close clinical ties to assistive technology service
delivery both through investigator background and sharing offices with
the UM Rehabilitation Engineering Program’s (UMREP) clinical
service. The UM-DBI project was co-founded by Dr. Simon Levine and Dr.
Jane Huggins, the current principal investigator. The term Direct Brain
Interface is intended to emphasize the function of the BCI as a direct
connection between the human brain and various kinds of technologies
(not just computers). With funding from the National Institute on
Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) and the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), the UM-DBI project pioneered BCI research
based on electrocorticogram (ECoG) from electrodes implanted inside the
skull.
The UM-DBI project’s close
clinical ties have fueled a desire to see the rapid advance of some
form of BCI to clinical availability and an awareness of the limited
nature of many of the BCI-specific applications developed for BCI
operation. The UM-DBI project’s NIH and NIDRR funded research on
BCIs based on electroencephalogram (EEG) has a particular goal of
advancing BCI technology toward clinical availability. This research
includes interfacing BCIs to commercially available assistive
technologies, improving BCI response time and no-control performance,
identifying features and support necessary for successful independent
BCI use by people with physical impairments and identifying the design
preferences and priorities of potential BCI users.
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