 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2016 |
| Founder | Bryan Johnson |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Website |
kernel |
Kernel is a technology company that creates brain–machine interfaces. It is a privately held company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The company was founded in 2016 by Bryan Johnson. [1] [2]
History
Johnson founded Kernel in 2016 with a $54 million investment and began researching neuroprosthetics, devices implanted into the brain that mimic, substitute, or assist brain functions. [1] [3]
In May 2020, Kernel introduced two brain-activity monitoring devices, Flux and Flow. [3] [1] The Flow device can both see and record brain activity. [4] [5] [3]
Kernel also introduced "Sound ID," a software that can tell what speech or song a person is listening to just from brain data. [1] The company was featured in the 2020 documentary, I Am Human, about brain–machine interfaces. [6] Kernel raised $53 million in 2020. [7]
Kernel Flow
Kernel Flow is a wearable time-domain functional near-infrared spectroscopy (TD-fNIRS) system. [8] [9] fNIRs uses infrared light to measure changes in the oxygenation of blood, which is a proxy for neural activity. Kernel Flow can achieve a 200 Hz sampling rate. [10] The spatial resolution of f-NIRS is strongly limited by scattering, with most existing f-NIRS systems having resolutions > 2 cm. [10]
Operations
Kernel plans to read and write the underlying functions of the brain. [11] [12]
As of 2019, the company is researching neurological diseases and dysfunctions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, depression and anxiety. [13] Kernel is one of several companies researching links between the human brain and computer interfaces, including Neuralink and Facebook. [14] Kernel also offers neuroscience as a service to scientists and businesses, conducting subject testing at their office. [1]
References
- ^ a b c d e "A Neuroscience Startup Uses Helmets to Measure Brain Activity". Bloomberg.com. 5 May 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
- ^ Mannes, John (2016-10-20). "Bryan Johnson Invests $100 Million In Kernel To Unlock The Power Of The Human Brain". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-04-04.
- ^ a b c Hoyle, Ben. "Secret team invent helmet to read the mind". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
- ^ Statt, Nick (2017-02-22). "Kernel Is Trying To Hack The Human Brain - But Neuroscience Has A Long Way To Go". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-04-04.
- ^ Johnson, Bryan (2017-02-22). "Kernel Acquires KRS to Build Next-Generation Neural Interfaces". Medium. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
- ^ "Brain-Machine Interfaces Could Give Us All Superpowers". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
- ^ "Kernel raises $53 million to bring neuroscience insights to businesses". VentureBeat. 2020-07-09. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
- ^ Ban, Han Y.; Barrett, Geoffry M.; Borisevich, Alex; Chaturvedi, Ashutosh; Dahle, Jacob L.; Dehghani, Hamid; DoValle, Bruno; Dubois, Julien; Field, Ryan; Gopalakrishnan, Viswanath; Gundran, Andrew; Henninger, Michael; Ho, Wilson C.; Hughes, Howard D.; Jin, Rong; Kates-Harbeck, Julian; Landy, Thanh; Lara, Antonio H.; Leggiero, Michael; Lerner, Gabriel; M. Aghajan, Zahra; Moon, Michael; Ojeda, Alejandro; Olvera, Isai; Ozturk, Meric; Park, Sangyong; Patel, Milin J.; Perdue, Katherine L.; Poon, Wing; Sheldon, Zachary P.; Siepser, Benjamin; Sorgenfrei, Sebastian; Sun, Nathan; Szczepanski, Victor; Zhang, Mary; Zhu, Zhenye (2021-03-05). "Kernel Flow: A high channel count scalable TD-fNIRS system". In Mohseni, Hooman (ed.). Integrated Sensors for Biological and Neural Sensing. Vol. 11663. p. 23. Bibcode: 2021SPIE11663E..0BB. doi: 10.1117/12.2582888. ISBN 9781510641617. S2CID 233784807. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
- ^ von Lühmann, Alexander; Zheng, Yilei; Ortega-Martinez, Antonio; Kiran, Swathi; Somers, David C.; Cronin-Golomb, Alice; Awad, Louis N.; Ellis, Terry D.; Boas, David A.; Yücel, Meryem A. (June 2021). "Toward Neuroscience of the Everyday World (NEW) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy". Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering. 18: 100272. doi: 10.1016/j.cobme.2021.100272. PMC 7943029. PMID 33709044.
- ^ a b Kim, Meri (1 April 2021). "Shedding Light on the Human Brain". OSA Optics and Photonics News. 32 (4): 26. Bibcode: 2021OptPN..32d..26K. doi: 10.1364/OPN.32.4.000026. S2CID 233531121. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
- ^ Johnson, Bryan (2016-10-12). "The Combination of Human and Artificial Intelligence Will Define Humanity's Future". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-04-04.
- ^ Metz, Cade (2017-03-31). "Elon Musk Isn't The Only One Trying To Computerize Your Brain". Wired. Retrieved 2017-04-04.
- ^ Johnson, Bryan (2017-02-22). "Kernel Acquires KRS to Build Next-Generation Neural Interfaces". Medium. Retrieved 2017-04-04.
- ^ Regalado, Antonio (2017-03-16). "The Entrepreneur With The $100 Million Plan To Link Brains To Computers". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2017-04-04.