We are very proud to share that the team from the University of Bristol, led by Dr Benjamin Ward-Cherrier, has published a paper based on research conducted on the FinalSpark™ Neuroplatform.
Their work, “Encoding Tactile Stimuli for Organoid Intelligence in Braille Recognition,”
explores whether living-neuron organoids can learn to recognise tactile information captured by a neuromorphic sensor. The sensor’s data were translated into electrical stimulation patterns and delivered through eight electrodes to each organoid. After each pattern—corresponding to a specific Braille letter—the team recorded the neurons’ electrical activity (spikes) to test whether the input produced distinguishable output signals.
The results are remarkable:
The researchers achieved 61% Braille-letter classification accuracy with a single organoid, rising to 83% when combining responses from a three-organoid ensemble. In other words, the organoids produced reliably different spike patterns depending on the input.
This is one of the first clear proof-of-concept demonstrations of organoids acting as low-power, adaptive computing elements.
The project was led by Dr Benjamin Ward-Cherrier, with experiments carried out by PhD student Tianyi Liu. The team received free access to the FinalSpark™ Neuroplatform through our open call for research proposals.
If you would like to run your own project using this revolutionary technology, you can find more information here.