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Kernel (neurotechnology company)

HI, LLC
Kernel
Company typePrivate
Founded2016; 9 years ago (2016)
FounderBryan Johnson
HeadquartersLos Angeles, California, U.S.
Websitekernel.com

HI, LLC, doing business as Kernel, is an American company that has developed a non-invasive neuroimaging technology. It is a privately held company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The company was founded in 2016 by Bryan Johnson.[1][2]

History

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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

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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

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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, Precision Neuroscience, Synchron, and Facebook.[14] Kernel also offers neuroscience as a service to scientists and businesses, conducting subject testing at their office.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "A Neuroscience Startup Uses Helmets to Measure Brain Activity". Bloomberg.com. 5 May 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ a b c Hoyle, Ben. "Secret team invent helmet to read the mind". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Johnson, Bryan (2017-02-22). "Kernel Acquires KRS to Build Next-Generation Neural Interfaces". Medium. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  6. ^ "Brain-Machine Interfaces Could Give Us All Superpowers". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  7. ^ "Kernel raises $53 million to bring neuroscience insights to businesses". VentureBeat. 2020-07-09. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ Johnson, Bryan (2016-10-12). "The Combination of Human and Artificial Intelligence Will Define Humanity's Future". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-04-04.
  12. ^ Metz, Cade (2017-03-31). "Elon Musk Isn't The Only One Trying To Computerize Your Brain". Wired. Retrieved 2017-04-04.
  13. ^ Johnson, Bryan (2017-02-22). "Kernel Acquires KRS to Build Next-Generation Neural Interfaces". Medium. Retrieved 2017-04-04.
  14. ^ Regalado, Antonio (2017-03-16). "The Entrepreneur With The $100 Million Plan To Link Brains To Computers". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2017-04-04.
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