Many of you may be wondering by this point if the technology can be used on humans. So far, few experiments on humans have been conducted, but the ones that have have succeeded.
In 1998, a man who was 53 years old, mute, suffered from a brain stem stroke, paralyzed, and although his brain functions normally its signals do not reach its intended destination. This man, through the use of electrodes stimulating neurons in his brain, can now move a computer mouse across a screen to convey simple messages, such as: "Hello," "Goodbye," "I'm thirsty/hungry," etc. Doctors have implanted a device into the mans brain that amplifies his brain waves. These signals are transmitted to an antenna like coil on his head to a laptop computer. The brain signals that the man emits is fed into the transplant which will send it to the antennas to the laptop, so that is the man thinks about moving the cursor over to the icon that says thirsty, the mouse cursor will do so from programming that pattern of brain signals to move the cursor to the thirsty icon.
Dr. Kennedy and Dr. Bakay, the two doctors who had treated the man, had one other patient before this man. The patient was a woman suffering from Lou Gerigh's disease. The woman was able to control computer signals for 76 days before she died.