Translate The Content in Your Local Language

Sunday 24 February 2013

Paralysed woman controls robot arm with her brain

Jan Scheuermann, 53, from the US, is paralysed from the neck down. Jan has a robotic arm that can pick up and move objects with a speed comparable to able-bodied people.
"It's so cool ... It's not a matter of thinking which direction any more, it's just a matter of thinking 'I want to do that'," she told a press conference. 



 
Experts are calling it a large step forward for prosthetics controlled directly by the brain.
For Jan, the experience has been transforming.
Project spokesman Michael Boninger told Reuters the arm had given Ms Scheuermann a "renewed purpose".
It took weeks of training for Jan to control the hand, but she was able to move it after just two days, and over time she mastered tasks - such as picking up objects, orientating them, and moving them to a target position - with a 91.6 percent success rate. Her speed increased with practice.
How it works – Two microelectrode devices were implanted into the Jan’s left motor cortex, the part of the brain that initiates movement.
Real-time brain scanning techniques, called functional magnetic resonance imaging, were used to find the exact part of the brain that lit up after the patient was asked to think about moving her now unresponsive arms.
The electrodes were connected to the robotic hand via a computer running a complex algorithm to translate the signals that mimics the way an unimpaired brain controls healthy limbs.
 
 
Source :  CandoAbility .Au ( 21st jan 2013 )

No comments:

Post a Comment