Brain interface technology allowed a dancer suffering from ALS to project her imagination onto the stage in the form of a mixed reality avatar that pranced around a theater in Amsterdam as part of a first-of-its-kind performance.
Whether tense or free, timid or morose, the avatar encapsulated all the long years of training that saw Breanna Olson become a successful dancer before the disease confined her to a wheelchair.
The incredible moment gave Olson a chance to dance again, something she had not been able to do for years after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the most common form of motor neuron disease.
“I never dreamed that I would be able to dance on stage again,” she said. “It was just a beautiful and memorable moment I will remember for the rest of my life.”
ALS affects the nerves, brain, and spinal cord, weakening and stiffening them over time which can lead to difficulty talking, breathing, and swallowing. There is no known cure and the disease is fatal.
A subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Dentsu, Dentsu Lab gave Olson the opportunity to become involved in its “Waves of Will” project that sought to use advanced brain interface technology to help those living with disabilities recapture their personal expression and identity.
Their new brain interface which the Lab developed in concert with a data tech firm NTT uses an electroencephalogram headset that captures the brain activity of Olson, and translates certain electrical signals into dance moves. Olson envisions how she would execute a movement, and the interface delivers it through normal computer instructions to a projected avatar which then performs the motion.
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Olson told the BBC that it requires extreme focus and concentration to imagine the precise details of any particular movement for the avatar. She said that it did exactly what the project’s aim was: to give personal expression back to someone like her who had lost that freedom.
In December, at the OBA Theater in Amsterdam, Olson and her Avatar danced around the stage as part of a Waves of Will performance, which Dentsu Labs called the first of its kind anywhere in the world.
WATCH the avatar move below…
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