Jan, who is paralyzed from the neck down, can use the robotic arm to eat chocolate.
A woman who is paralyzed from the neck down is displaying what one neurobiologist called "completely unexpected" skill at manipulating a robotic arm using nothing more than her thoughts. The patient, a 52 year old woman named Jan, doesn't have the use of her limbs because of a degenerative spinal disease. She controls the arm using a program that translates her brain activity into fluid movements - she can simply think about her goals instead of each individual motion, exactly like someone who would normally pick up a cup or ball. She sends her input to the device through a grid of electrodes implanted in to her brain near the motor cortex. She now has small connectors on her head, to which the device is attached. Before implanting Jan with the device, doctors took scans of her brain imagining an arm performing various tasks. Now that the device is implanted, the program looks for the previously recorded patterns to control the arm.
In the beginning, the arm was programmed to ignore small mistakes in Jan's movement, but by the third month she was able to do the trials effectively without help, and her performance is better than anyone else before her. Andrew Schwartz, a doctor who worked with Jan, said "At the end of a good day, when she was making these beautiful movements, she was ecstatic." Jan can now use the arm to manipulate objects on a surface, as well as to eat and drink.
The technology isn't perfect, but improvements are on the horizon. As it stands, a thin layer of scar tissue builds up around the tips of the electrodes and degrades the signal. New, thinner wires may solve that problem and prevent the scar buildup by keeping the reaction that makes scar tissue from triggering. The researchers also hope to build senses into the arm, so that the patient can feel texture and temperature in objects. Scientists are currently working on a wireless version of the system so that patients don't have to be plugged into a machine physically.
Now all we have to do is apply the black-gold colour scheme to all our architecture and Deus Ex: Human Revolution can be achieved! ...also, people complaining about playing god cos robots are bad. Yeah! The future! Videogames! Robotics! Neural interfaces! Chips! Million Dollar Man! Detroit!
Andy of Comix Inc: Now all we have to do is apply the black-gold colour scheme to all our architecture and Deus Ex: Human Revolution can be achieved! ...also, people complaining about playing god cos robots are bad. Yeah! The future! Videogames! Robotics! Neural interfaces! Chips! Million Dollar Man! Detroit!
Yeah!
Also, this is probably the exact kind of biofeedback exercise people will need to effectively use their biotics.
Zachary Amaranth: I want four of these arms, in tentacle shape, mounted to a backpack. I shall call myself...Professor Squid!
No, but seriously, this is an awesome improvement.
wait wouldn't that bring your total arms to 6 (oct-) I call copy-right infringement someone call Marvel
OT: this is really cool, and if they figure it out for legs paraplegic can soon be walking. though I am still concerned for the cyborgs they can get inside your head, and start controlling your thoughts..... no I was not telling them our plans. everything is falling into place.
Guffe: This some awesome advancement. Soon the world will be inhabited by half robot people
I'm pretty sure the term you are searching for is "cyborgs" :)
No I'm not! Like every zombie movie and show refuses to call them zombies I won't go as low as take some strange sci-fi naming of somehting and start using it for real life!
Guffe: No I'm not! Like every zombie movie and show refuses to call them zombies I won't go as low as take some strange sci-fi naming of somehting and start using it for real life!
But yeah... maybe...
I've always been a bit weirded out how Walking Dead characters don't just call the ... walking dead ... zombies.
Zachary Amaranth: I want four of these arms, in tentacle shape, mounted to a backpack. I shall call myself...Professor Squid!
No, but seriously, this is an awesome improvement.
wait wouldn't that bring your total arms to 6 (oct-) I call copy-right infringement someone call Marvel
OT: this is really cool, and if they figure it out for legs paraplegic can soon be walking. though I am still concerned for the cyborgs they can get inside your head, and start controlling your thoughts..... no I was not telling them our plans. everything is falling into place.
Actually, octopuses have eight (octo=eight) tentacles. Also, you forgot to count his legs.
OT: Must contact LIMB and get the Icarus landing system, CASIE, and the hacking augmentations (Except for the useless one). Awesome accomplishment.
...Your telling me that just by thoughts alone she can move that arm? Like a real arm? That is crazy! I had no idea we were that far in neuro robotics to actually simulate what its like to move a real limb. If there already this far, I could only imagine what a decade would do....she would be moving that robotic arm in such a realistic fashion it would perfectly simulate human movement.
Guffe: This some awesome advancement. Soon the world will be inhabited by half robot people
I'm pretty sure the term you are searching for is "cyborgs" :)
No I'm not! Like every zombie movie and show refuses to call them zombies I won't go as low as take some strange sci-fi naming of something and start using it for real life!
But yeah... maybe...
You know that "robot" (1920) isn't much older word than "cyborg" (1960) right? And both came from science-fiction. So you either should use both or none.
OT: That's absolutely amazing. I love seeing all these breakthroughs happening in my lifetime. By the time I'll kick the bucket, I imagine we'll all be upgraded in a way. My favourite thing would probably be an internal hard drive and a text editor recording my thoughts, so I could edit later. Would make writing so much easier.
She sends her input to the device through a grid of electrodes implanted in to her brain near the motor cortex.
Umm, they have this technology with simple sticky pads to the forehead that read magnetic resonance fields from your brain that extend outside the skin.
No need for implants via drilling of brain and skull bits.
Use the force luke, always, but not like that! Bad boy Luke!
I'm pretty sure the term you are searching for is "cyborgs" :)
No I'm not! Like every zombie movie and show refuses to call them zombies I won't go as low as take some strange sci-fi naming of something and start using it for real life!
But yeah... maybe...
You know that "robot" (1920) isn't much older word than "cyborg" (1960) right? And both came from science-fiction. So you either should use both or none.
Getting witty are we, eh? Well I'll tell you lad, 40 years is for me at the youn' age o' 20 pretty much. As for the sci-fi part, You callin' StarWars sci-fi now? I have no idea what I'm doing
I feel horrible thinking about it, but this may be the cure to the whole euthanasia debate. Just attach the arm up to someone, with a gun on the table and then leave the room to let the situation solve it's self.
You know that "robot" (1920) isn't much older word than "cyborg" (1960) right? And both came from science-fiction. So you either should use both or none.
Getting witty are we, eh? Well I'll tell you lad, 40 years is for me at the youn' age o' 20 pretty much. As for the sci-fi part, You callin' StarWars sci-fi now? I have no idea what I'm doing
O_O . . . . . Ehm, how does Star Wars came into discussion?
P.S.Also, I was wrong- term cyborg first appeared in scientific publication not science-fiction. That gives it even more credibility than "robot", right? Because that's how these things work. P.P.S. And yes Star Wars isn't sci-fi, but rather science fantasy (less science, more fiction)
Riobux: I feel horrible thinking about it, but this may be the cure to the whole euthanasia debate. Just attach the arm up to someone, with a gun on the table and then leave the room to let the situation solve it's self.
First page, we've allready gone from A) helping the disabled to B) helping KILLING the disabled. Nice
OT: love it. As most people have said. I didn't know we were this advanced. Alltho it is still a long way to go ffcurz.
Woman Controls Robot Arm With Her Mind
Jan, who is paralyzed from the neck down, can use the robotic arm to eat chocolate.
A woman who is paralyzed from the neck down is displaying what one neurobiologist called "completely unexpected" skill at manipulating a robotic arm using nothing more than her thoughts. The patient, a 52 year old woman named Jan, doesn't have the use of her limbs because of a degenerative spinal disease. She controls the arm using a program that translates her brain activity into fluid movements - she can simply think about her goals instead of each individual motion, exactly like someone who would normally pick up a cup or ball. She sends her input to the device through a grid of electrodes implanted in to her brain near the motor cortex. She now has small connectors on her head, to which the device is attached. Before implanting Jan with the device, doctors took scans of her brain imagining an arm performing various tasks. Now that the device is implanted, the program looks for the previously recorded patterns to control the arm.
In the beginning, the arm was programmed to ignore small mistakes in Jan's movement, but by the third month she was able to do the trials effectively without help, and her performance is better than anyone else before her. Andrew Schwartz, a doctor who worked with Jan, said "At the end of a good day, when she was making these beautiful movements, she was ecstatic." Jan can now use the arm to manipulate objects on a surface, as well as to eat and drink.
The technology isn't perfect, but improvements are on the horizon. As it stands, a thin layer of scar tissue builds up around the tips of the electrodes and degrades the signal. New, thinner wires may solve that problem and prevent the scar buildup by keeping the reaction that makes scar tissue from triggering. The researchers also hope to build senses into the arm, so that the patient can feel texture and temperature in objects. Scientists are currently working on a wireless version of the system so that patients don't have to be plugged into a machine physically.
Source: The Guardian
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