This is the kind of tech that gives me chills. Synchron has just released a public demo showing something that used to feel impossible. A man with ALS is now using his iPad with nothing but his brain. No hands. No voice. No eye-tracking. Just thought.
The man in the video is named Mark. He’s part of Synchron’s COMMAND clinical study and has an implant called the Stentrode. It sits inside his brain’s blood vessels and picks up his motor intention. Those signals get sent wirelessly to an external decoder, which then tells the iPad what to do. It’s all made possible by Apple’s new Brain-Computer Interface Human Interface Device protocol, which lets iPadOS treat brain activity like an actual input method.
Apple’s built-in Switch Control feature makes the whole thing work on the software side. The iPad even sends back screen context to the BCI decoder to make everything run more smoothly and accurately.
As a tech journalist, I see a lot of flashy announcements. But this one genuinely blew me away. I love when technology is used to improve lives. This isn’t about hype or gimmicks. It’s about real independence. Mark can now send messages, read the news, and stay connected with the world just by thinking. That’s powerful.
“When I lost the use of my hands, I thought I had lost my independence,” Mark said. “Now, with my iPad, I can message my loved ones, read the news, and stay connected with the world, just by thinking.”
Synchron was the first company to start clinical trials with a permanently implanted BCI. The big difference here is that it doesn’t require open brain surgery. The device is implanted through the blood vessels, which makes it way more practical for real-world use.
This demo shows the system in action today, not years down the road. Synchron is still rolling it out in a controlled way, but they’re planning wider access. With Apple now supporting this input method across iPad, iPhone, and even Vision Pro, this could become part of everyday life faster than anyone expected.
Honestly, this is the kind of thing that reminds me why I love covering tech. It’s not just gadgets. It’s about giving people back parts of their lives. And that’s amazing.
