EXCLUSIVE: Advances in AI-powered assistive technologies point to implants

Doug Lear, an assistive technology specialist at Northwest Ergonomics, explores how advances in AI are transforming assistive technology, moving from external wearables like smart glasses and watches towards increasingly sophisticated implants and bio-integrated devices that interface directly with the human body and brain to restore function and enhance accessibility.

As we try to keep up with the exciting developments that are shaping assistive technologies, gone are the days when you had to have your mobile phone out to provide the computing power necessary to use AI apps to interact with the world. Advancements in processing power are increasingly making the devices less obtrusive.

AI-powered glasses have probably been the most notable wearable device for the last couple of years, with products like Meta’s AI glasses providing a seamless portal into AI throughout our daily lives, while also providing accessibility features like voice control of the phone and access to the Be My Eyes network for assistance from sighted volunteers.

Glasses attachments like the Orcam MyEye will explain the surroundings, read text aloud, and even recognise faces for a visually impaired person.

Watches are also popular, with the Apple Watch being the most high-profile example, including many assistive features like AssistiveTouch, fall detection, emergency SOS, and health monitoring features that can do things like detect blood oxygen or heart rate issues.

Smaller and smarter —The trend toward implants and human integration

The increase in processing power available allows tiny devices to hold modern AI algorithms that allow them to perform feats that were impossible just a decade ago.

Many of the most cutting-edge assistive technologies are moving closer to the user’s body or even inside it. This trend toward implanted or bio-integrated solutions is driven by several factors. Performance is paramount: to truly restore lost function, devices often need a high-resolution, low-latency interface with the human nervous system that external gadgets can’t achieve. Another motive is the desire for seamless, everyday usability.

Technology may be ready before we are

The technology might outpace our willingness to accept it into our bodies. But really, it might depend on which part of the body. Many decades of hearing aids have probably laid the groundwork for cochlear implants now in development that will be able to directly stimulate the auditory nerve and can convey sound to a deaf user in ways no external hearing aid could previously.

And then of course, pacemakers and similar regulatory devices have paved the way for acceptance of implants in our organs that might use AI to improve our health and quality of life.

The head/brain is the final frontier (and shows the most promise) for assistive technology

People with Parkinson’s Disease have benefited for many years now from electrodes implanted in their brains that have greatly reduced some of the tremor and movement difficulties they experience. That is a non-AI brain implant that has had huge benefits to its recipients.

As AI algorithms become more powerful, they can make sense of the rich data coming from implanted sensors or coordinate complex stimulation patterns. As a result, we now have viable brain implants for communication that can read speech signals from inside the brain. Elon Musk has promoted Neuralink’s implants as enabling a future “symbiosis” with AI. In essence, AI is the decoder that unlocks the potential of implanted hardware.

There are limitless possibilities for how implants can be inserted into the brain to improve our lives. This is an exciting area of assistive technology that will no doubt improve countless lives going forward. My fellow assistive technology specialists and I can’t wait to see what unfolds.

About the author

Doug Lear is an assistive technology specialist at Northwest Ergonomics, with offices throughout Oregon, Washington, and the Pacific Northwest in the United States. Although Doug has worked for over 20 years in vocational rehabilitation, his passion lies in assistive technology. Doug enjoys working with technology, but most of all, he enjoys helping people.