Science
Related: About this forumBrain implant allows paralysed woman to control a robot with her thoughts
Brain implant allows paralysed woman to control a robot with her thoughts
The BrainGate implant can decode a patient's brain signals and instruct a robotic arm to reach and grasp objects
Ian Sample, science correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 May 2012 13.00 EDT
A woman who lost the use of her limbs after a devastating stroke nearly 15 years ago has taken a sip of coffee by guiding a robotic arm with her thoughts.
The 58-year-old used a brain implant to control the robot and bring a flask of the coffee to her lips, the first time she had picked up anything since she was paralysed and left unable to speak by a catastrophic brain stem stroke.
Doctors hailed the feat as the first demonstration of an implant that directly controls a reaching and gripping robotic arm by sensing and decoding the patient's brain signals.
The work is part of a US clinical trial of an experimental implant called BrainGate that doctors see as a first step towards devices that can bypass damage to the nervous system and allow paralysed people to regain control of their limbs or amputees to move prosthetics.
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/may/16/brain-implant-paralysed-woman-robot-thoughts
intaglio
(8,170 posts)Especially as it is a very wonderful use of technology
Lucky Luciano
(11,242 posts)...work tinkering with god's will.
Stop science in the name of the lord!!!!!!!
<--- for the impaired.
Yavapai
(825 posts)Guess this is "woman ver. 2.0"!
I bet in fifty years, people will look back to the year 2000 as we do today on medicine in 1900.