Will telepathy technology be part of our daily lives within the next decade? We can already control devices from miles away from our smartphones, turning the lights or heating at home on and off at the touch of the button or setting a favourite TV show to record. As a kid, I remember being impressed the first time I came across clap-control lights. But 25 years or so on and the way we interact with electronic devices is about to move onto a whole new level – mind control.

We’re not quite there yet but leaps and bounds have been made. Scientists have achieved major breakthroughs with prosthetic limbs wearers control in almost exactly the same way as they would real limbs; through sub-conscious thoughts sending brain signals to the nerves and muscles.

A recent Vodafone report predicting what consumer technology will look like by 2030 thinks we’ll be wearing devices that will let us control tech with our minds. The report, written in partnership with the consultancy The Future Laboratory, forecasts voice-control being replaced by mind-reading devices embedded in wearables like digital watches. They will be able to pick up on commands given through thinking words without the need for them to be uttered.

Last December, a 62-year-old man with motor neurone disease was able to send a tweet using only his thoughts thanks to a brain implant designed by Synchron, an American-Australian tech company. Synchron is developing endovascular brain-computer interface (BCI) implants that will hopefully one day soon mean sufferers of nervous system diseases like MS will be given back control of their bodies.

Elon Musk’s company Neuralink was set up specifically to work on technology-human interfaces like BCI and last year released video images of a monkey playing a video game by mind control via a brain implant.

Facebook is working on a wrist-worn device it believes will be used in the metaverse digital worlds it is convinced is the future. The device will read neurological brain signals to move objects in video games, or the metaverse.

It’s always tricky to pinpoint precisely when new technology will reach the tipping point that draws a line between promising research and limited prototypes into practically applicable and commercially viable. But the growing activity and investment into BCI-based product R&D and the number of increasingly impressive prototypes suggests it won’t be more than a decade before the technology enters the mainstream.

Let’s take a look at how thought-controlled technology works and some of the most impressive projects to develop BCI-based mind-controlled technology we might see in a real-world context in the coming years.

What is telepathy technology and how does it work?

Brain, mind or thought-controlled technology uses sensors to pick up electrical activity in our brains and translate it into a thought or command which results in an action. The brain activity picked up falls into one of two categories:

• Ordinarily sub-conscious commands like the signals our brain sends to our nervous system to move our arm, hand and fingers if we want to pick up a cup.
• Conscious commands from thoughts formulated in our minds in the form of language. For example “turn off the living room lights”, which are then communicated to devices.

In many ways, the concept of telepathy tech shouldn’t be as alien as it might seem. Is the principle of telepathy really all that different to telephony? As an Ericsson blog on the theme of the tech company’s 2030 Consumer Trends Report reflects

“a microphone captures airwaves, so why not switch to sensors that capture electrical activity in the brain?”

Some companies are even working on new ways to interpret thoughts that don’t rely on interpreting electrical activity. Facebook-owner Meta Platforms, for example, has been conducting R&D on a non-invasive version using infrared light sensors instead. The idea with infrared would be to measure oxygenation rather than electricity.

Applications of telepathy technology

Some of the most prominent examples and applications of telepathy technology currently being developed include:

Prosthetics

Start-ups and companies including Atom Limbs and a number of academic research studies have made significant progress in the development of a new generation of prosthetic limbs based on telepathy technology.

Mind-controlled prosthetics are now able to avoid the need for invasive implants. They instead use devices with sensors that act as a bridge for impulses sent from the brain to where a limb used to be, instead sending those signals onto the prosthetic limb, which then react in the same way the real one would have.

Scientists are even learning how to send signals back to the brain with Atom Limbs prosthetics now providing a basic sense of touch.

The brain as a computer interface

The start-up NextMind has developed a noninvasive neural interface that sits on the back of the head and translates brain waves into data that can be used to control compatible software. Users of the NextMind device can currently do things like shooting ducks in a telepathy-controlled computer game, changing the TV channel or the colours on a set of smart lightbulbs.

The company this year announced its developer kit and hopes entrepreneurs will start to use the technology to build commercial applications that will take it mainstream.

Human-to-human telepathy

A 2019 report by the Royal Society forecast that by 2040 we could be using telepathy technology to communicate human-to-human and not only human-to-machine.

“People could become telepathic to some degree, able to converse not only without speaking but without words – through access to each other’s thoughts at a conceptual level. This could enable unprecedented collaboration with colleagues and deeper conversations with friends.”

“Not only thoughts, but sensory experiences, could be communicated from brain to brain. Someone on holiday could beam a ‘neural postcard’ of what they are seeing, hearing or tasting into the mind of a friend back home.”

Augmented humanity

One of the most controversial potential applications of telepathy technology, and something Elon Musk’s Neuralink is working on, is using BMIs to augment human cognitive ability “with a layer of AI” that boosts our ability to acquire and retain knowledge and skills.

Musk has expressed the concern that machines will eventually, perhaps in the not too distant future, be so far advanced they look at humans in a way comparable to how we look at house pets. Five years ago he commented at a tech event:

“I don’t love the idea of being a house cat, but what’s the solution? I think one of the solutions that seems maybe the best is to add an AI layer.”

Challenges BCI tech must still overcome

The prospect of telepathy tech is both hugely exciting, early applications are likely to revolutionise the treatment and quality of life for the disabled and those afflicted by brain diseases including Alzheimer’s, and concerning. Will privacy of thought become a relic of the past?

But while ethical questions have to be addressed now, telepathy technology still has challenges to overcome. Currently, BMI technology is either too invasive or requires significant practice by the user, even for simple tasks. That’s a major bottleneck to mainstream adoption and will have to be overcome for telepathy technology to have either widespread medical use or commercial applications.

The problem with non-invasive methods like those that use electroencephalography (EEG), or electrical brain activity and impulses, is that the signals are so weak that it’s difficult to precisely locate and interpret them.

But despite the early stage of telepathy technology, many analysts are convinced it will advance sufficiently over the next decade or so to have genuine application. As with all new technology the task will then be to ensure telepathy tech is developed and applied in a controlled way that makes the most of its benefits and guards against potential misuse.