by John P. Mello Jr.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Researchers-Create-Brain-on-a-Chip-73770.html
Many of us have heard of AI (Artificial Intelligence) before, however, most recently a group of researchers have taken AI to a whole new level. Standard computer AI runs in various series of activities whereas this new chip simulates activity more akin to the human brain. In addition, the new chip eliminates spiking in currents in order to act more like the behavior the brain goes through to learn.
The way this occurs are through changes in strength of connections between neurons (storage areas in your brain) called ion channels carried by synapse. (structure that allows electrical signals to transfer from neuron to neuron) Unlike conventional computers this chip would permit all forms of technology it is a part of to actually learn similar to a human as all activity would instead work parallel to one another rather than in a series of signals.
Through this method uses of the chip can be used to simulate prosthetics to be more akin to an actual limb. Essentially this means a computer will not need to pause between receiving a command and actually fufilling it. Lets take Honda's ASIMO for example if these chips were inserted into ASIMO this eliminates the series and replaces it with parallel signals like the human brain. So, ASIMO would not have any delays to process commands and actually performing the action.
Though it takes 400 transistors to mimic a single synapse, the chip can store billions which equates to millions of simulated snyapse activity on a single chip!
Stephen Montano