The University of Canterbury led a million dollar study that focuses on the development of the technology called "neurocomputing" that will enable machines to think like the human brain. This study commenced by the Kiwi scientists aim to compress all the capabilities of a human brain into a chip so that it becomes small enough to fit into a smart phone.

This million dollar project at the Canterbury University is known to be one of the most recent developments when it comes to the neurocomputing technology. Neurocomputing refers to the ability of the computers and the machines to function like the human brains. Computers will be designed in such a way that they learn like we do. Our brain contains neurons, and these neurons are connected to one another by a synapse. It is through synapses that the information from one neuron to another flows. Our learning is influenced by the behavior of these synapses.

"When you associate a particular image with a particular idea, it's because of the pathway through the synapses which has been created," said Professor Simon Brown, who is leading the study with colleague Dr. Saurabh Bose.

The Canterbury scientists' approach to this study involves the creating of networks made up of nano scale junctions to act like switches so that they serve as the connectors replicating the synapses in the human brain.

At the moment, the scientists have still got a long way to go in achieving the objective of creating machines and computers that will exactly mimic the brain as the capability of the chip is still uncertain.

Brown hopes to have a new, leading company that specializes in creating neomorphic computer chips, by the end of the said two and a half year project.