This app lets kids with disabilities use devices with their minds. Now anyone can download it

When Claire Sonnenberg was born with cerebral palsy, her parents were told she would never talk, walk or do much of anything on her own.

Now the smart and smiley 10-year-old plays video games, bakes and makes smoothies and pores over books using a brain-computer interface (BCI), technology that allows her to control devices and communicate using only her thoughts.

“We hear her speak, we hear her say I love you, we hear her activate her jeep and drive across the lawn — it’s magic,” said Claire’s mom, Stephanie Sonnenberg, who lives in Okotoks, Alta.

Claire has been using the technology since she was three years old through a research project run by the University of Calgary and Alberta Children’s Hospital. She wears a headband that can read her brainwaves, transmitting signals to an app that interprets them for connected devices, allowing her to communicate through a tablet.

Last month, the technology Claire uses was released to the general public as an app called Think2Switch.

While BCI has been used in research settings for some 50 years, the app’s aim is to make it accessible and simple to use, says Dion Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Possibility Neurotechnologies, the startup that released the app. 

“For people who have not had the opportunity to interact with the world in any other way, it’s life changing,” said the Calgary-based neuroscientist, who was also part of the original research team. 

How does it work?

Contrary to popular belief, BCI can’t read your mind, Kelly says. Instead, the app works like a translator, turning specific brainwaves into commands.

“You have to actually teach the system to recognize what your thoughts mean,” she said.

The headband needs to be calibrated each time it’s worn, which involves thinking of a specific word repeatedly, such as “go,” for several seconds. The Think2Switch system then understands that when detected, this brain signal means “go.” The process is repeated for other basic commands.

The app requires a $35 monthly subscription, and has been designed to work with commercially available electroencephalography (EEG) headsets, which range from $200 to $500. These types of headsets record electrical activity in the brain via sensors on the scalp.

WATCH | Instructional video from Think2Switch shows system set up:

Kelly says they offered the app free of charge to an estimated 150 families during testing.

“Most of these families … have been setting it up all by themselves, they don’t have the technical support,” she said.

“We wanted to get their feedback so that we could know, ‘OK, what do we have to make more clear, so that these non-technical families feel confident?’”

It’s currently only available on iOS devices, though Kelly says they plan to expand. It’s been downloaded almost three dozen times in the first couple of weeks.

Are implants on the horizon?

Tom Chau, who also researches pediatric BCI, says the technology is “not really as far-fetched as people might think,” though previous research has focused on adults.

“It’s only in the last decade or so that we’ve started to explore the opportunities with children,” said Chau, a distinguished senior scientist and head of the PRISM Lab at the Bloorview Research Institute in Toronto. He is not involved with the Think2Switch app.

BCI technology can be non-invasive, like a headband that you can take on or off, or invasive, like a device implanted directly in or on the brain.

When asked if these devices could one day be implanted in kids’ brains, Chau said “it’s still early on in terms of that kind of research, particularly with children and youth.”

But he pointed to an existing device, the cochlear implant, “as a bit of a template in terms of what’s possible.” Cochlear implants are designed to be permanent implants that create a new hearing pathway by bypassing the damaged part of the ear to reach the auditory nerve.

“I don’t think implants are going to be for everyone … in some cases, it may be useful. But others may prefer the non-invasive approach,” Chau said.

“The important thing is that all of these technologies are advancing simultaneously, very rapidly. And there’s going to be many options for families.”

Kelly notes Think2Switch is a non-invasive system because the headband can be easily removed and is “not just listening to your brain all the time.”

She acknowledges there is a risk for families who become reliant on a private company’s technology, only for that company to one day go out of business.

“That actually happens quite often, which is very unfortunate because this is somebody’s way for them to participate and interact,” she said.

“We are the first to really get out there, but I’m hoping that we’re not the last … I’m sure that there will be options for people.”

Giving kids their voice

Chau says this kind of technology could change how our society looks at children with disabilities — as well as what those kids can achieve. 

“Many of them are cognitively capable, they just haven’t had a means to express themselves. And so this is kind of the liberating power of BCIs,” he said.

With the technology’s help, Sonnenberg says she’s learned a lot about her daughter. Claire always seemed drawn to blue, so she presumed that was her favourite colour.

“When she learned to speak, she told us her favourite colour was pink,” Sonnenberg said.

“It was incredible. I mean, it made me a little bit sad because I’d always put her in blue, but it was so amazing that she wanted to tell me basically to stop, that she liked pink.”