Tech market of the future: the brain

In January, Miguel A. L. Nicolelis, M.D., Ph.D., announced that his team completed the first steps toward a brain machine interface that might make it possible for paralyzed people to walk by directing devices with their thoughts. The team's monkey, in North Carolina, demonstrated the power of the technology when she used her brain signals to make a robot in Japan walk.

The Alzheimer's Association recently reported that one out of eight baby boomers is expected to get Alzheimer's disease, creating a total of 10 million victims. This staggering prediction underscores the need for brain health and augmentation, a new market that tech players are fortunately beginning to enter.

Just as it is possible to go to work out one's body in the gym, it is also possible to buy computer software to work out one's brain. Software programs now on the market include Nintendo's "Brain Age" and Posit Science's Brain Fitness Programs. Indeed, consulting firm Sharpbrains reports that the market for these products more than doubled between 2005 and 2007 to US$225 million, and health insurers like Humana are offering brain fitness programs to Medicare members at a discounted price.

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