Silicon Valley’s ambitious new bet: Brain ‘modems’ that restore sight, hearing, and speech

This may not be able to directly help us in those cases where the neurons controlling a movement/function are dead. But our researchers with a bit of innovation could come up with a solution to the dead brain problem.
https://www.statnews.com/2017/08/17/brain-machine-interface-paradromics/?utm_source=STAT+Newsletters&

SAN JOSE, Calif. — In a warehouse district here, a few young engineers fueled by ramen and energy bars are inventing the future of mind reading.

Paradromics has big ambitions: It wants to squeeze a device the size of a mobile phone into a chip small enough to insert into a human brain, where it would “read” nerve signals and replace senses and abilities lost due to injury or diseases.

For now, the startup’s recently minted Ph.D.s are working in a small warren of scruffy offices and labs to perfect a stuffed-mouse mockup. You’d never guess that it won an $18 million Pentagon contract last month, vaulting it into the top ranks of Silicon Valley companies surging into the field of brain-machine interfaces.