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Paralyzed Man Feels Touch Through Mind-Controlled Robot Hand this is so cool. qudriplegics will be able to regain a lot of body function. wish this tech had come in time for chris reeves. this maybe gives hope for stephen hawking to regain movement capability. Paralyzed Man Feels Touch Through Mind-Controlled Robot Hand
October 13, 2016 11:19 AM A paralyzed man is regaining a sense of touch while using a mind-controlled robotic hand, feeling subtle pressure in his own fingers when the artificial ones are touched. The experiment reported Thursday is an early step in the quest to create prosthetics that can feel. How it works: Tiny chips implanted in Nathan Copeland's brain are bypassing his broken spinal cord, relaying electrical signals that govern movement and sensation to and from that robotic arm. When University of Pittsburgh researchers blindfolded Copeland, he could correctly identify which robotic finger they touched 84 percent of the time. "The majority of them, it felt like a pressure or a tingling" in his own corresponding finger, said Copeland, 30, of Dunbar, Pennsylvania. When a researcher touched two fingers at the same time, "I just laughed and I said, 'Are you trying to be tricky or something?" Harnessing brain waves to power prosthetics is a hot field, with a goal of giving the disabled more independence and improving artificial limbs for amputees as well. Headlines in recent years have reported experiments that let paralyzed people move a robotic arm to touch a loved one or take a drink simply by imagining the motion. Their thoughts activate brain implants that relay electrical signals needed to command movement. The signals are transmitted through a computer to the robotic limb. What's new is recreating sensation using this brain-controlled technology. After all, proper motion depends on more than muscle movement. Reach for something and that sense of touch helps you naturally grasp with just enough force to hang on while not either dropping something or crushing it. "It's not only that emotional connection we get," said Robert Gaunt, a Pittsburgh assistant professor of rehabilitation who led the new study. "People have an incredibly difficult time interacting with objects, picking objects up, manipulating them, doing fairly basic things with the hand if they don't have a very basic sense of touch."
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This is wonderful. I love reading news about medical progress. If we could focus on our similarities and put aside our differences , focus on what´s really important and invest in education and fund medical education, I´m sure we´d be able to beat cancer and AIDS, and invent new limbs, new skin etc. etc. Like Prince said, we should champion our similarities, not our differences. We are living in a new golden age, an age of opportunities and endless possibilities but we are also still dealing with petty stuff everywhere (religious extremism, ignorance, greed). " I´d rather be a stank ass hoe because I´m not stupid. Oh my goodness! I got more drugs! I´m always funny dude...I´m hilarious! Are we gonna smoke?" | |
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agree! | |
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What an inspiring story sure to give hope to a lot of people. Now if new medical breakthroughs would be made accessible and affordable to those without deep pockets. "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
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