• Tweet

• Tweet

(CUPERTINO, Calif. — March 15, 2026) Software giant Microsoft has joined forces with iLife manufacturer Apple as joint venture AM to release the first commercially available BCI or Brain Computer Interface (http://www.braincomputerinterface.com/) today. In an announcement from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, CEO Michael Shahid highlighted how the BCI that Apple named the iSee will be used with the third generation iLife NoHand device to show and fully control a heads up display visible only to the user.

Shahid commented on the history of BCI research. “We owe much to the foundational work of Cyberkinetics (http://www.cyberkinetics.com/ ) who developed the BrainGate system in 2005. Their contribution to this project has been immeasurable. We also learned from the Utah Electrode Array project (http://www.sci.utah.edu/~gk/abstracts/bisti03/,) but in the final analysis, it was the synergy of Apple and Microsoft engineers that made this advance possible.” Shahid denied any involvement with the secretive government agency, DARPA.

Bill Gates came out of retirement to outline Microsoft’s part in this joint venture at the press conference. He highlighted the critical software development that a project of this scope required. “We have built on the foundation of our Kinect technology and the cutting edge OpenWindows platform which allowed open source developers from around the globe to contribute to this landmark development. Our partnership with G-Tec of Austria and their BrainAble BCI (http://www.gtec.at/Research/Projects/BrainAble) was also invaluable,” Gates said. At the end of his comments he paid tribute to the legendary founder of Apple. “I know that we all wish that Steve could be here for this achievement. It was only possible with the foundation that he laid.”

The BCI has been in use under medical supervision for over three years. There is a community of Lou Gehrig’s disease patients who enjoy permanent implants that allow them to control both a smart house and a smart motorized chair. They have also organized as a community in the popular cyber reality site, Second Life. Lou Gehrig’s disease patient Frank Wilson recently explained from this artificial reality, “Me and my buddies are free to roam. It’s like living in the city when I was young. The real me can’t even move but in here I can do anything.”

The iSee will require out-patient surgical implantation. Although it now has conditional FDA approval, there is uncertainty how a wide range of people will react to the implant.