Peter Ford

Peter Ford is the visionary inventor behind NeuroNode, a revolutionary assistive technology that enables people with profound disabilities to communicate and control technology using their own neural signals. Formerly known as NeuroSwitch, the system has transformed lives around the world by restoring independence, connection and agency to those previously unable to interact with their environment.

Peter famously beta-tested the technology with Professor Stephen Hawking. In 2003, after asking Peter to install the system on his powered wheelchair, Hawking selected as his first message: “I am always being mistaken for Stephen Hawking.” The moment marked a landmark achievement in human–computer interaction and assistive technology.

NeuroNode works by detecting minute muscle or neural signals via a simple, painless adhesive sensor and synchronising them with a scanning cursor on a virtual keyboard. Users can then select letters, commands or actions. Today, the technology is used internationally by war veterans, students with disabilities, and people living with traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, motor neurone disease and cerebral palsy. By connecting wirelessly to tablets, phones and smart systems, NeuroNode enables users to email, operate equipment, manage their homes, communicate via video calls, and even control telepresence robots.

Peter’s path to innovation began in journalism. Starting his career in Warwick and Toowoomba, Queensland, he worked across newspapers, magazines, radio and television before moving to the United States in 1981 to join CNN. He became Australia’s first news anchor at CNN and CNN2 in Atlanta and spent the next two decades reporting globally for CNN and NBC News Channel.

His reporting career included coverage of Space Shuttle missions from Kennedy Space Center, high technology, the Pentagon and military systems, and major world events including Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield, live reporting from Moscow and the Vatican, the Sydney Olympic Games, and post-9/11 assignments embedded with mujahideen fighters in Pakistan and Afghanistan during the siege of Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora.

While at CNN, Peter also began developing software and robotics programs on early Apple computers. In 1983, a satellite-tracking program he wrote accurately predicted the crash site of the Soviet nuclear-powered satellite Kosmos 1402 — a calculation broadcast live on CNN. During this period, he was invited to join one of the first Rehabilitation R&D laboratories established by the US Veterans Administration, where he began developing alternative communication systems for people with severe disabilities. One of his early programs was sent to Professor Hawking at Cambridge, with Apple Computer donating hardware to support the work.

For more than two decades, alongside his roles as a news anchor in Miami and Washington DC, Peter worked pro bono as a software consultant, designing unconventional computer interfaces for people unable to use a keyboard or mouse. In 1999, he was asked to consult on a patient in Houston who was completely unable to move or communicate. By re-tasking electromyograph data from a clinical EMG monitor, Peter enabled the patient to produce a single computer “beep” in response to questions. Over the next three years, that breakthrough evolved into a fully functional communication system — the foundation of NeuroSwitch and, later, NeuroNode.

In 2005, Peter founded Control Bionics, launching operations in Australia and the United States. The technology has since been funded by the US Veterans Administration for eligible veterans, supported by Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme, integrated with Apple’s Switch Control, and explored by Google for Android platforms.

Today, NeuroNode enables users to control computers, phones, smart homes, robotics and AI-driven systems wirelessly using neural signals — positioning it at the forefront of human–machine integration and functional bionics.

Peter is the author of The Keeper of Dreams, published by Simon & Schuster in New York. His work has been recognised internationally, including winning Pitch at the Palace Commonwealth Boot Camp in London in 2018, initiated by the Duke of York. He was featured on ABC Australian Story in 2013 and named New South Wales Senior Australian of the Year in 2014. A member of Mensa since 1992, Peter is also a former Rodeo Sportswriter of the Year and a published songwriter.

A compelling and inspiring speaker, Peter’s presentations often include live demonstrations in which audience members control a computer using their own neural signals, offering a powerful glimpse into the future of human potential.