A cyber hand with ten degrees of freedom
A paralyzed American woman has learned to control a robotic arm with the power of thought
An American woman with paralyzed limbs was able to learn how to take objects with the help of a robotic arm, acting only with the power of thought. (For one of the previous models of such a device, see the article "An artificial hand can be controlled with the help of thought" – VM.)
The new robotic prosthesis control system is described in the Journal of Neural Engineering (Wodlinger et al., Ten-dimensional anthropomorphic arm control in a human brain-machine interface: difficulties, solutions, and limitations, and is briefly reported by New Scientist (Thought control makes robot arm grab and move objects).
Jan Scheuermann, who lost control of her limbs in 2003, was able to take and move a variety of objects, from a cube and a ball to a vertically standing tube.
The system, developed at the University of Pittsburgh, includes two electrodes implanted in a woman's brain – in the left part of the motor cortex (motor area of the cerebral cortex), responsible for the movements of the right hand. The electrodes are connected to a computer that analyzes the waves of electrical activity of the brain recorded by 96 contact points on the electrodes. A special algorithm finds a correspondence between electroencephalograms and Scheuermann's attempts to mentally imagine hand movements.
The latest version of the system has learned to recognize three new patterns of behavior: stretching fingers, scooping and clamping. The robotic manipulator has ten degrees of freedom. The developers of the technology assure that such a wide range of movements has been achieved for the first time.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru19.12.2014