Samstwitch
Senior Member
Mind-controlled robotic arm has skill and speed of human limb
LONDON (Reuters) - A paralyzed woman has been able to feed herself chocolate and move everyday items using a robotic arm directly controlled by thought, showing a level of agility and control approaching that of a human limb.
Jan Scheuermann, 53, from Pittsburgh, was diagnosed with a degenerative brain disorder 13 years ago and is paralyzed from the neck down.
"It's so cool," said Scheuermann during a news conference. "I'm moving things. I have not moved things for about 10 years ... It's not a matter of thinking which direction anymore it's just a matter of thinking ‘I want to do that'."
She was shown feeding herself string cheese and chocolate unaided as well as moving a series of objects in tests designed for recovering stroke victims, and she was able to do it with speeds comparable to the able bodied.
Experts are calling it a remarkable step forward for prosthetics controlled directly by the brain. Other systems have already allowed paralyzed patients to type or write in freehand simply by thinking about the letters they want.
In the past month, researchers in Switzerland also used electrodes implanted directly on the retina to enable a blind patient to read.
CONTINUED...CLICK ME TO SEE FULL ARTICLE AND PHOTO!
LONDON (Reuters) - A paralyzed woman has been able to feed herself chocolate and move everyday items using a robotic arm directly controlled by thought, showing a level of agility and control approaching that of a human limb.
Jan Scheuermann, 53, from Pittsburgh, was diagnosed with a degenerative brain disorder 13 years ago and is paralyzed from the neck down.
"It's so cool," said Scheuermann during a news conference. "I'm moving things. I have not moved things for about 10 years ... It's not a matter of thinking which direction anymore it's just a matter of thinking ‘I want to do that'."
She was shown feeding herself string cheese and chocolate unaided as well as moving a series of objects in tests designed for recovering stroke victims, and she was able to do it with speeds comparable to the able bodied.
Experts are calling it a remarkable step forward for prosthetics controlled directly by the brain. Other systems have already allowed paralyzed patients to type or write in freehand simply by thinking about the letters they want.
In the past month, researchers in Switzerland also used electrodes implanted directly on the retina to enable a blind patient to read.
CONTINUED...CLICK ME TO SEE FULL ARTICLE AND PHOTO!
