The First Brain-Computer Interface Product Offered for Sale (March 2 – March 6, 2010)

At the CeBit exhibition in Hannover, Germany, Christoph Guger of Guger Technologies (g.tech) of Graz, Austria, offered intendiX, "the world's first personal Brain Computer Interface speller" for sale at the retail price of €9000.

"The world’s first patient-ready and commercially available brain computer interface just arrived at CeBIT 2010. The Intendix from Guger Technologies (g*tec) is a system that uses an EEG cap to measure brain activity in order to let you type with your thoughts. Meant to work with those with locked-in syndrome, or other disabilities, Intendix is simple enough to use after just 10 minutes of training. You simply focus on a grid of letters as they flash. When your desired letter lights up, brain activity spikes and Intendix types it. As users master the system, a few will be able to type as quickly as 1 letter a second. Besides typing, it can also trigger alarms, convert text to speech, print, copy, or email" (http://singularityhub.com/2010/03/07/intendix-the-brain-computer-interface-goes-commercial-video/, accessed 03-16-2010).

♦You can watch a video of intendiX in operation entitled Select words by thinking—world record on YouTube at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlUPFpZswJk, accessed 03-16-2010).