Paralysis victims use brain signals to control robotic arm

[Catbird]

The big news about this is that it's progressed to the point where someone can use it to actually grasp something. That's light years ahead of previous advancements.

There really is hope.

USA Today:

"A fully paralyzed man and woman have demonstrated the ability to hold a ball or grab a cup of coffee using their brain signals to control a robotic arm, researchers report Wednesday.

In the slowly progressing world of brain implant research, Hutchinson grabbing herself a cup of coffee for the first time in nearly 15 years , stands as the emotional highlight of the latest study, Donoghue says. "This is just a start at restoring independence to paralyzed patients."

In the study, Hutchinson and a paralyzed 66-year-old man, both stroke victims unable to speak, controlled a right-handed robotic arm by signals sent from brain implants. The brain implants, about the size of a baby aspirin, have 100 thin wires that slightly protrude into the covering of the patients' brains, centered over the regions connected to arm movements.

"We asked them to imagine moving their arms and the implant picks up the signal," in brain cells, Donoghue says. Essentially a computer weighed signals from brain cells firing beneath the implant to initiate movement from the patients. But instead of making those movements in discreet directions — up, down, backward, forward and sideways — the updated program allows the robotic arm to move in a smooth curving path to touch targets."

[blue gecko]

Technology like this makes me feel like there's hope for mankind.

[Catbird]

Me too.

Can you imagine how it must have felt for her to have gotten her own cup of coffee for the first time in 15 years? Even the most humble things can sometimes bring great joy.