For many years, humanity believed that the future is in our hands, but Neurable, a start-up company founded by University of Michigan graduate students, believe that the future is in our thoughts, and they will develop the software to prove it.
The idea is part of Neurable's vision to create a world that removes people's limitations, and it believes the answer lies in the human brain. More specifically, it wants to remove very real physical limits by controlling physical objects through virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).
Now that sounds a lot like science fiction but Neurable seems intent to turn it into science fact because the tech start-up has some really great minds in its team who are experts in the field of neuroscience, machine learning, engineering, gaming, and business.
Using our brain in VR...just another day in the office! #VR #technology #BCI #HCI pic.twitter.com/pNvSU6CAdG
— neurable (@neurable) December 21, 2016
Neurable has been gaining attention not only for its ideas but its business plan, as well. After all, the team would not have wowed judges and won a total of $330,000 at the Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) in April if its plan is not even possible.
What exactly did they present to stand out and win against 40 teams and 400 business plans? Neurable only successfully developed the first non-invasive Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), which allowed untrained humans to control technologies such as electronic wheelchairs, robots and even cars.
Now, months later, the star-up announced that it has received $2 million in funding to forge ahead with its dream of unleashing the human brain's full potential through VR and AR.
"Neurable's brain-computer interface uses electroencephalography to record brain activity, analyze data and provide users with full three-dimensional control in real time [...] Neurable transforms augmented and virtual reality by placing the user's mind in the center of the experience," Neurable's website explains.
However, the company has no intention of building its own physical device on which its software would run. The Neurable team is betting that some of electroencephalogram (EEG) device will make its way into VR and AR headsets in future models so, instead of building their own, it would rather focus on improving its Software Development Kit (SDK) to ensure that most, if not all, AR and VR headsets can run its software.
"[We] want to become that piece of software that runs on every hardware and software application that allows you to interpret brain activity. That's really what we're trying to accomplish," Neurable President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ramses Alcaide said in an interview.
