A man who can't move his hands used thoughts to write on a computer screen. The man is paralyzed from the neck down after a spinal cord injury ten years ago. He wants to be anonymous, so scientists call him T5. Scientists put two small sensors into his brain. These allow him to use his mind to write. The scientists call this "mindwriting". T5 can write about 18 words per minute. This is five words slower than writing a text message on a smartphone.
Mindwriting is simple to do, but it uses a lot of technology and a special algorithm. Scientists asked T5 to imagine writing on a paper. The two sensors turned his brain activity into text on a computer screen. A researcher hopes mindwriting will help millions of paralyzed people to write again. It might also help people who cannot speak. In the future, this technology might help us to write at the speed of thought.