Neural Interface

(NI), academically known as Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), are a variety of highly-specialized cybernetic implants involving the integration of an organic brain with a wired micro-computer module to form a digital-symbiotic relationship between the two. A specialized and common variety of brain-computer interface in the twenty-sixth century are "neural laces", integrated neural implants into the brain cavity with a surgically-invasive networking spool providing better sensitivity then previous generations.
Before the , the neural interface was primarily a military technology with limited application in the civilian sector. Adoptions of neural implants before the Covenant War seemed to extend to areas of heavy industry and cosmopolitan populations in the technology-integrated cultures of the human core worlds. While cybernetic technology is older than the founding of the , the contemporary form of neural interfaces in the 2500s shares only a passing technological resemblance to predecessors due to increased reliability and scope.
The maturation of neural interface technology has grown in equal tandem with research over time as both became more relevant in human society. Accelerated leaps in the cybernetics field occurred during the and Human-Covenant War. But by the end of the Covenant War, neural interface technology along with Smart AIs have become commonplace, even integral, across many facets of human society due to wartime population collapse and necessitated increases in automation. Greater adoption and integration of brain-computer interfaces appear to be one of the major goals of the Assembly until their eventual supplanting by in . The AI rebellion collapsed in but marked an indefinite pause on formal research into AI and integrated neural technologies, however, informal research by corporations and non-state factions continued.
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==Sophistication Levels==
Sophistication levels are very broad stroke definitions for complexity and capabilities found in different types of neural implants and the cybernetic mix that supports them.
*Civilian-grade is the baseline level that encompasses any related technology available in the public space and with few restrictions on use, development, or ownership.
*Military-grade is the broadly-defined technology level regarding any military-related neural implants considered standard-issue or allocated circumstance to pay grade or security clearance. There are legal limitations on implementation and modification outside the military-industry best practices.
*Exception-grade refers to any particularly illegal, unique, or prototype neural implant and cybernetics, usually presenting legal and moral concerns. Exception-grade is often cutting-edge in nature or originating from alien sources, sometimes outside the .
===Civilian-Grade===
The newest and weakest sophistication attribution among neural interfaces and corresponding cybernetic technologies and implants. Contemporary civilian-grade refers to any cybernetics considered lawful and easily accessible in the public space. Still requiring surgery, the revolutionary simplification of cybernetic enhancements has gradually escaped complexity to arrive at practical outpatient clinical procedures by . The growth and sophistication of the civilian-grade cybernetics market is still a relatively distant dream on the horizon. While nowhere near that of military-grade implants, the promises of convenient implementation and diverse availability amongst civilians are already bearing fruit.
Civilians are already capable of several sophisticated abilities through neural implants and cybernetic melding. Generally, this includes always-on Grid integration, instantaneous messaging supported by neural text and recording through supported hardware applications, neural articulation of thought allowing for replication and conversion in other program mediums, and the intentional hijacking of the nervous system allowing for chemical and mechanical action orders through neural implant bypass. Such abilities are supported by existing Grid infrastructure and technologies and can extend to the format of external memory storage, limited augmentation-like abilities, seamless instant messaging models, and greater smart technology interactions.
Civilian-grade is the very baseline of sophistication levels and generally other levels are more sophisticated and complicated in scope. However, all levels build on one another as civilian-grade serves as the baseline. There is some gray-area overlap between the degrees of sophistication.
===Military-Grade===
The next level above civilian-grade sophistication, military-grade neural implants, and corresponding cybernetics are only acquirable through military sources and defense contractors. Getting the due legal permission to have access to military-grade cybernetics is difficult, requiring an extensive paper trail, permissions, background checks, and appropriate security clearances. For criminal elements, it's simply easier to steal or replicate the military-grade technologies.
And yet, for the supposed complexity of military-grade neural implants, the actual sophistication is not that far from what is already available on the civilian market. Regular troopers and sailors receive very basic neural implants upon successful completion of military basic training, among other trans-human medical operations. Generally, the users of military-grade cybernetics are current or retired military service members, military contractors, militia forces, defense industry employees, and non-regulated corporate agents for internal use only.
Military-grade typically differentiates from civilian-grade through the nature of complexity. More complicated neural implants are required for integrated military vehicles, for example, the main battle tank or the space fighter. Military-grade neural implants are also necessary for the extent of data communications in a shared network battlespace, augmenting the cyber warfare space and capabilities of a mobile combat force like the .
The best-known examples of ceiling military-grade neural implants are the and the .
===Exception-Grade===
==Implant Distributors==
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The contemporary industry leader in cybernetics and military cyber-ware offerings following the Human-Covenant War, Imbrium Machine Complex (IMC) rose out of their century-long slump after losing market leadership to Vestol as their precursors failed to keep up with technological advances taking place in the realm of cyberwarfare and human augmentation by the mid-2400s. Lunar heavy industries unified under a new banner following a large turn of industrial jobs and interests moved out to the new Outer Colonies leaving much of SolCore markets in a developing state of recession hiccups.
The remade Imbrium Machine Complex developed a pseudo-nativist work culture that relied on a notion of localized construction and remembering a beautified history of Luna being the first interplanetary factories for humankind and the launch point of the Domus Diaspora. This corporate mindset encouraged learning from and closing the technology gap with the colonial industry in multiple fields including cybernetics as IMC sought to use their proximity to the Unified Earth Government to close government contracts to their colonial competitors while building a name brand for reliability as the human core worlds and inner colonies sought to match the industrial output and economic opportunity developing in the more unstable Outer Colonies. Such otherization between the inner- and outer-colonial worlds through the twenty-fifth century would become a key motivation for the outbreak of the Insurrection and the rise of the Imbrium Machine Complex to leading the human cybernetics industry.
IMC seized on opportunities created by the Human-Covenant War as the Outer Colonies were decimated by Covenant invasions and critical industries retreated deeper into the human sphere. The conglomerate bought up former rivals and competitors while they were down, seizing technology and industrial secrets for their own and taking on more military contracts to fulfill the needs of the war effort. Their support efforts of ONI's Materials Group in developing sophisticated weapon and combat platforms, particularly Project MJOLNIR, eventually saw Imbrium Machine Complex arrive at the point they became the major provider of cybernetic equipment to the UNSC Armed Forces.
In contemporary times, Imbrium Machine Complex provides the post-Covenant War UNSC with service-wide neural interfaces per contract, research and development of new cybernetic technologies in coordination with ONI and other government science organizations, and providing critical cybernetic components and associated products to the pubic and private sectors. IMC's most noteworthy contributions include a variety of Mjolnir power armors and key components to the UNSC's Spartan Operations branch. 
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An established industry leader in cybernetics before the Human-Covenant War, the Vestol Corporation set many industry standards and best practices before 2525. Vestol's contributions to the field extended to servicing and supporting the military cybernetics industry, and fundamental software and hardware packages for heavy industrial aspects of the civilian market. 
This was most visible when Vestol neural interfaces were chosen as the next service-wide neural implant for the UNSC Armed Forces in 2497 during a changeover in technologies and philosophies developed as follow to some early invasive-cybernetic research projects relating to the first Project ORION and operational demands emphasized by the UNSC Ordinance Commission following concerns raised by frontline units fighting both Insurrectionists and logistical hang ups by the Colonial Military Administration. During the Insurrection and into the early Human-Covenant War, Vestol neural implants assembled on Tribute were as synonymous to UNSC new recruits as Misriah Armory's MA5 service rifles and CH252 helmets. Vestol continued to service the UNSC with neural implants designed for military officers, fighter pilots, and tank operators through the Human-Covenant War until late 2552 when Tribute was attacked by Covenant forces and the company suffered great cost to their operating capabilities and loss of life among their staff.
In the civilian sector, Vestol Corporation sold the first true cost-conscience neural implants of the twenty-sixth century to civilians and colonial markets with emphasis on fulfilling the needs and augmenting capabilities for industrial workers in dangerous and demanding careers. These early neural interfaces gave the Vestol Corporation significant market domination as their offerings leap-frogged the previous generation put out by the lunar predecessors of the future-cybernetics-giant Imbrium Machine Complex.
Vestol neural interface components can be found within early privatization work for the Mjolnir Mark V platform along with the original line of neural laces for the SPARTAN-II program. Following the company's devastation during the Battle of Tribute, their market control shifted to other corporations and their products became more legacy- and bottom-line-oriented. SPARTAN-III Delta Company employed Spartan neural laces styled built from Vestol neural implant components to keep prices down for the already budget-tight and illegal continuation of the SPARTAN-III program.
==Mjolnir Neural Technology==
Neural interfacing is the most complicated and delicate part in the Mjolnir man-machine armor system envisioned by Doctor Catherine Halsey for her SPARTAN-II supersoldier program. While neural implants were a mature technology by the Interplanetary War, centuries of advancement unlocked new military capabilities once implausible.
Contemporary neural laces form the backbone of Mjolnir connectivity between its human operator and the body armor as a complete system. From the data port implanted at the base of the skull, the neural lace communicates over data linkages of the Spartan body glove called a “tech suit.” The data port manages two-way data flows between the brain and managed systems. The primary data linkages rest in the armored neck of the tech suit and provide triple redundant communications where the neural lace, neck, and Mjolnir helmet meet before cascading into the rest of the armor.
Between the linkages are two major data pathways. The linkages between neural lace and tech suit are the main data pathway for wholistic “think-by-light” operability. This main connection covers the larger range of activity by the Mjolnir powered armor such as sensory information, motor functions, suit operations, and life support. Due to near-unconscious operation, functions of the primary pathway usually do not require an interface.
In contrast, a secondary pathway integrating the Mjolnir helmet with the prior tech suit connection offers a visual data management interface operated by the Heads-Up Display (HUD) allowing for further suit controls. The helmet component offers more apparent interaction for the human operator including per-authorized access of suit Boot Interface Operating System (BIOS) firmware, Visual Intelligence System-Reconnaissance (VISR) customization, and management for battle network and modular armor suites. However, these deeper layer permissions are dependent on standards set by UNSC Ordinance Commission in partnership with Mjolnir developers.
Because of the design redundancy, Mjolnir armor systems can operate in conjunction between pathways for optimal efficiency and without interruption. A Spartan taking off their Mjolnir helmet will not interrupt unconscious tech suit functionality. Limited customization by standalone helmet usage without a tech suit is doable.
A two-part hardware system also exists along the secondary data pathway called a Neural Interface Controller (NIC) between lace and helmet. Like two halves of a brain, the NIC facilitates the basic function of neural lace communications to external objects to the person.
The standard, standalone NIC on the neural lace-side provides safety measures, lace moderation firmware, and interconnectivity software for the city grid-level that is present in most neural lace offerings including civilian variants. The lace-side NIC processes and converts external data into a format readable to a human brain. This basic component is often referred to as a “wetware NIC,” and can provide signaling connectivity with modification but are often air-gapped by design.
The more complex, suit-side “hardware NIC” component completes the handshake protocol with wetware end allowing specific functionality with the Mjolnir armor system. The suit-side NIC turns human thoughts into suit actions.
The hardware NIC is also capable of loading complex intelligence software, sometimes derived from scalped AI directors as featured in several second-generation Mjolnir powered armor platforms to varying mission-critical advantages. The hardware NIC also provides the means for hosting Smart AI on later Covenant War-era Mjolnir platforms with digital architecture like purpose-built infrastructure databanks. This feature expanded after the Covenant War to macro-scale hosting of Dumb AI. 
==Military Variants==
*ATTACK neural interface (ATCK):
*COMMAND neural interface (CMND):
*DEFEND neural interface (DFND):
*DRIVER neural interface (DRVR):
*INTEL neural interface (INTL):
*OPERATOR neural interface (OPTR):
*PILOT neural interface (PILT):
*SPARTAN neural interface (SPRN):
*TROOPER neural interface (TRPR):
*TANKER neural interface (TNKR):
*WETWORK neural interface (WTWK):
==Associated Technologies==
===Thinking Caps===
"Thinking caps" are an informal, catch-all phrase used to describe headwear with integrated electroencephalography (EEG) technology used for scanning and interpreting brain waves into electronic signals and information. Originally favored by military vehicle operators and pilots for interfacing with their vehicles' computation assembly, thinking caps began as actual skull caps similar in design to swimmer caps with a thicker, clothy finish containing mini-receptors to interpret brain signals and interface with embedded neural implants through surface-to-surface technology.
Thinking caps have been further introduced into the mesh of helmets particularly with the series favored by the and , and later other helmets such as those compatible with the as Spartan neural implants required more powerful processing surfaces to communicate between their hard-suits and their implants. With the slow trickle of neural implants into the civilian market, the wearable-tech and smart-clothing trends have seen a brief resurgence with clothes being fashioned to include the thinking cap mesh.
Vibrant designs and cybernetic corporation logos are commonplace on both civilian and military thinking caps as casual and sports fashion lines have been propped up around the adoption of the new civilian cybernetics scene. Thinking caps remain a pragmatic option for military personnel with long hair as long as their unit commander gives unit-wide permission or on-occasion exemptions. Spartans, with their more relaxed traditions, have seen the popular use of thinking caps among their ranks.
===Soporific Aide===
===Simulthought===
===External Storage===
===Memory Backup===
===Neural Decay Bypass===
===Neural Mapping===
==Overcyberization==
===Reptile Complex===