Apple wants people to control devices with their thoughts

The company is taking early steps to enable people to control their iPhones with neural signals captured by a new generation of brain implants. It could make Apple devices more accessible to tens of thousands of people who can’t use their hands because of severe spinal cord injuries or diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

Apple is looking forward to a day, still some years away, when implants developed by Elon Musk’s Neuralink and its rivals receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Such implants, known as brain computer interfaces, have already been safely placed in a handful of patients.

Historically, humans interacted with their computers mechanically, using keyboards and mice. Smartphones introduced touch, a behavioral input, but still an observable physical movement. The new capability means Apple devices won’t need to see the user make specific movements, the devices can detect user intentions from decoded brain signals.

Apple has worked on the new standard with Synchron, which makes a stent-like device that is implanted in a vein atop the brain’s motor cortex. The device called the Stentrode has electrodes that read brain signals. It translates the signals into selecting icons on a screen. Apple took a similar step in 2014 when it launched a technology standard for hearing aids to communicate with iPhones via Bluetooth, a standard most hearing aids have since adopted.

Mark Jackson, an early tester of the Stentrode implant, was able to peer over the ledge of a mountain in the Swiss Alps and feel his legs shake. Jackson can’t stand up, and he wasn’t in Switzerland. He was wearing an Apple virtual-reality headset, which was connected to his implant.

Jackson can’t travel from his home outside Pittsburgh because he has ALS. Still, he is learning how to control his iPhone, iPad and Vision Pro headset thanks to a connection between his Stentrode implant and Apple’s various operating systems.

The Synchron device effectively translates brain waves, allowing a user to navigate around a screen and select an icon. It works with a feature inside Apple’s operating system called switch control, which literally switches control to a new input device like a joystick, or in this case a brain implant.

Jackson cautioned that Synchron’s technology is still early in its development. He can’t use it to mimic moving a cursor with a mouse or a touch screen with fingers, so navigation is much slower than normal interaction with a computer or smartphone.

Today, brain computer-interface companies have to trick computers into thinking the signals coming from their implants are coming from a mouse, said Synchron Chief Executive Tom Oxley. More is possible with a standard built specifically for these implants, he said. Apple will release the new standard later this year for other developers.

The first user of Neuralink’s implant has shown that he can move a cursor with his thoughts faster than some people can with a mouse. Its device, called the N1, captures much more brain data than Synchron’s because it has more than 1,000 electrodes picking up neural activity compared with the Stentrode’s 16. Also, the N1’s electrodes are implanted inside the brain rather than placed on top of it. The neural data picked up by its implant is converted into mouse clicks or keyboard strokes.

Musk has extolled the potential of such implants for all people, saying they could amplify the brain’s capabilities and enable humans to compete on equal footing with superintelligent AI systems.

Synchron has implanted its Stentrode device in 10 people since 2019.

Morgan Stanley has estimated that around 150,000 people in the U.S. who suffer from critical upper-limb impairments could be early candidates for brain computer-interface devices. It anticipates that the first commercial approval for such a device will come in 2030. Oxley said he believes Synchron will receive approval before then.

Write to Rolfe Winkler at Rolfe.Winkler@wsj.com