Brainmab: Human-Machine Interface Platform Brainmab October 2018 Abstract Brainmab is a project that aims to integrate the brain-computer interface (i.e. BCI) technology into the blockchain ecosystem and to create a new and secure telecommunication and payment platform. In recent years, BCI technology has become an intense interest with the increase of machine learning potential but has not really found its place in the real world applications yet. The technologies such as BCI, silent speech interface, gesture and mimic recognition, and eye tracking has been greatly mentioned in the scientific community by their name and potentials. In today’s world, the technologies used for telecommunications and money transfer are substantially primitive compared to human-machine interfaces. Brainmab will conduct first hand studies on each of the steps of researching, developing and integrating these new generation technologies directly into the real world. Blockchain technology, another important part of the payment and telecommunication platform, has proven its capability and capacity as a financial instrument with several remarkable examples such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Privacy, security, anonymity, and reliability are important for Brainmab in today’s world where especially data security is widely discussed. In addition to these four features, the blockchain also enables us to create a decentralized and unattended data exchange channel. Brainmab has the ability to make the blockchain more secure than it is with the brain-computer interface interaction. 1 1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation The brain-computer interface (BCI) is a special technology that allows people to communicate through electronic devices with direct thinking. Although it is exciting and promising, the products designed for human use by utilizing this technology are not satisfactory at the moment. The main problem is that there is more than one way to use this technology, and there is no unity between the products designed using different ways and the method of use and development. (see Section ​2 ​for detailed information) In terms of ease of use, BCIs are potentially more advanced than all communication tools used today. Smartphones, which are the most popular communication devices of our era, are devices with limited opportunities that should be in physical contact (i.e. fingers) with people to function as a concept. Voice assistant software developed for remote access problems are not suitable for all types of data and cannot meet the expectations exactly. Instead, BCIs promise to do what smartphones and voice assistants do and more, and to fulfill requests more effectively through thought. The fact that human beings have the most intimate asset which is their mind, and biological data in the hands of any central authority can bring them very big problems and concerns. Brainmab has adopted a decentralized and secure approach to eliminate this concern once and for all, and decided to use blockchain as a foundation for its technology. This ensures that users’ sensitive information is inaccessible to anyone, including Brainmab. (see: Section ​5​) 1.2 Objective The primary aim of Brainmab is to minimize the effort to exchange information between human-human and human-machine interactions. This information exchange includes any type of data that can be carried over the Internet. Brainmab, with its own special blockchain solution, 2 plans to support all of the written, visual and audio communication channels that people use frequently. In addition, it is Brainmab’s priority to use BCI technology for money transfers and payments that was once cannot be performed without an intermediary institution using blockchain technology. For this reason, Brainmab wants to increase the support of the unified platform that BCI needs: software and hardware development opportunities. In addition, it is Brainmab’s priority to use BCI technology for money transfers that cannot be performed without an intermediary institution thanks to blockchain technology. For this reason, Brainmab wants to increase the support of the unified platform that needs BCI, software, and hardware development opportunities. In addition to the innovations it will bring to the field of communication, Brainmab plans to make human life easier by using the features of the blockchain and BCI technologies (expanding the boundaries if needed) as much as possible). For the above-mentioned purposes, Brainmab has developed the concept of Brain-Blockchain Interface. Some of the things that can be done with the Brain-Blockchain Interface: • Money transfers • Payments • Control of ​Internet of Things​ (IoT) ​1 d​ evices. • Access to Brainmab compatible services and hardware. • Telecommunication Refer to Section ​2 ​for detailed information about the Brain-Blockchain Interface. The products to be developed by Brainmab will be able to 1recognize and carry out the commands such as "Brainmab, send 100 tokens to Ali.", and will be able to confirm the payments by asking “Do you approve to pay 3 tokens for a cup of coffee?” and will be able to 1 Internet of Things is a system of devices that communicate with each other through various communication protocols and creates an intelligent network by sharing information. 3 complete the money transfer just by thinking. Detailed information on usage is available in Section ​4.1​. In addition, security plays a key role in every technology that Brainmab offers. For this, preliminarily, it is intended to provide users with the highest security password storage technology that has been offered to the users so far with mind-produced private key technology. Detailed information on Security is available in Section ​5​. Brainmab prefers to be a producer, not a consumer, in its research areas. Accordingly, every technology that Brainmab produces will be applied to medical fields too as long as the area of use can be found, and will be actively involved in medical research which is within the scope of its interest. Detailed information on Researches can be found in Section 7​. 2 Brain-Blockchain Interface Brain-Blockchain Interface​ (BBI for short) is the Brainmab technology which aims to connect the functions of the human brain and Brainmab blockchain. This technology fundamentally consists of 4 elements. 1. ​Input​: The step in which biological data is obtained from the human body. For example; surface EEG (electroencephalography), surface EMG (electromyography), EMA (electromagnetic articulography) etc. 2. ​Analysis​: Processing and interpretation of the signal gathered from the human body. In this step, if necessary, the relevant records are opened in blockchain. Namely, meaning money or data transfer has taken place. 3. ​Interaction ​with services: If the user wishes, he/she can use the services working on the Brainmab API with his/her thought (see Section ​6.2​). Thus, it is possible to transfer information quickly and with sheer thought. 4. ​Output​: The step of transferring information from the blockchain to the user. Examples for such output devices are monitors, smart 4 glasses, headphones (via voice channel), other program scripts etc. There are many methods that can be used as input. It can be focussed on the various points of certain pathways to get data about thoughts, decisions, and intentions from the human body. Following titles of this section will be focusing on different approaches of human biodata. 2.1 Silent Speech Speech is a complex event that lasts from the selection and sequencing of words in the brain to oral sounds. Silent speech is a human’s inner thought or voice, without that person vocalizing his thoughts or moving any of the articulation organs. Although it is not visible for human eye, articulation organs can act and react in various micro templates during the time of the speech is planning. These responses can be taught to machine learning models and the content of the internal conversation can be recognized. Systems working with this principle are called ​silent speech interface​ or ​internal speech interface​. A variety of ways can be used during the identification of silent speech and various stages of the speech event can be used to recognize: • ​Surface Electroencephalography (EEG)​: Measurement of brain activity by electrodes placed on the scalp. • ​Electromagnetic Articulography (EMA)​: Motion detection with coils placed in the mouth and lip. Thus, words can be selected by modeling the mouth, tongue and lip movements. Although this measurement technique requires visible mouth movements, the user does not need to make a sound. • ​Surface Electromyography (EMG)​: Measurement of electrical activity (and microactivity) in the muscles. • ​Video​: Examining lip movements through visual data and trying to understand the content of speech. EEG aims to perceive the conceptual content of speech. Detection of intention and content of speech by computerized analysis followed by 5 these measurements is directly dependent on brain waves. EMA and EMG aim to obtain information on the articulation phase of speech. Facial muscles, neck muscles, jaw joints, larynx are some of the articulation elements where these measurement methods are applied for internal speech. Although the speech –in theory can be learned and processed from the parts that are difficult to reach by electronic devices such as the diaphragm, rib muscles, vocal cords, nerves to the vocal cords, pharyngeal and laryngeal muscles, it is difficult to apply in practice. The biological signal obtained can be converted to text or sound with statistical classification algorithms. The success rate of translating the EMG signal of the AlterEgo project in MIT in 2018 was reported as 92%. [​3​] The success rate of the Google speech-to-text engine is around 95%. It is possible to achieve complete and natural dominance on the Brainmab platform with the detection of silent speech. Thus, it is aimed to be able to detect direct commands like “​Brainmab, send 100 BRN tokens to Ali​”. In addition, the use of Brainmab services is possible with commands such as “​Brainmab, how is the weather?​” Or “​Brainmab, how many tokens are there in my wallet? ”.