This proposal of "Interactive Brain Information Technology (IBIT)" aims to develop a technology to restore the ability of operating machine and of sensing which is weakened or lost as a result of disabilities in the body through interactive exchange of information between brain and outside world.
For this purpose, we need to establish a technology for each of the following factors and develop the integrated technology.

1) Detection of signal from the brain
2) Analysis of information from the signal
3) Control of external equipments by the analized information
4) Feedback of information to the brain
5) Understanding of plasticity of brain during the information interaction

The establishment of the above technological foundation is expected not only to support or restore human functions lost by disabilities but also to serve as the foundation of technologies to control multi-degree-of-freedom motion that cannot be realized under normal conditions or to utilize brain activities under the unconsciousness.

By carrying out the research and development in this proposal, the IBIT is expected to contribute to improvement in the quality of life of the people with disabilities as a technology to support their activities, while providing a significant breakthrough in the elucidation of brain functions. This technology closes in on the operating principle of the brain itself, including how the information is encoded in the brain and how it is used.

Since this research area forms the integrated area that includes a very wide range of areas, it should be advanced as applied research and various applications in the development of technology to the society in parallel to different development phases. Therefore, we think that the Brain Science Committee, which has been established under the Research Plan and Assessment Subcommittee and the Science Research Promotion Panel of the of Science Subcommittee of the Council for Science and Technology of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, is an appropriate organization to oversee this research and development as a fundamental research and should provide a long-term operation of this research and development.