Brain-Computer Interface Technologies

This book is about the field of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and the unique and special environment of active implants that electrically interface with the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and organs. At the heart of the book is the matter of repairing and rehabilitating patients suffering from severe neurologic impairments, from paralysis to movement disorders and epilepsy, that often requires an invasive solution based on an implanted device. Past achievements, current work, and future perspectives of BCI and other interactions between medical devices and the human nervous system are described in detail from a pragmatic point of view.

• Reviews the Active Implantable Medical Devices (AIMDs) industry and how it is moving from cardiac to neuro applications
• Clear, easy to read, presentation of the field of neuro-technologies for human benefit
• Provides easy to understand explanations about the technical limitations, the physics of implants in the human body, and realistic long terms perspectives

Claude Clément is Chief Technical Officer for the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuro Engineering, Geneva, Switzerland. He has been founder, chairman, or board member of several start-ups and small businesses. He holds a Masters in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne and an MBA from HEC at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland).

Claude started in R&D for the watch industry (Swatch Group) as head of the transducers and actuators development group. He entered the world of medical technologies by heading the diversification activities of Swatch in the field of wearable programmable drug delivery pumps. He then spent 23 years in the field of active implantable medical devices, as Director of Manufacturing Engineering at Intermedics (now Boston Scientific), as Plant Manager of the Swiss operations of Medtronic, and later as a consultant for major companies, mainly in the field of pacemakers and for various innovative start-ups. Starting in 1996, he put in place and ramped-up the highly automated factory of Medtronic in the Lake Geneva area. This plant is the world’s largest site for the assembly of active implantable medical devices, producing more than 2,000 pacemakers, defibrillators and neuro-stimulators per day. Until 2014, he was CEO of MyoPowers, a start-up company developing an electromechanical implant to treat severe incontinence.