Paralyzed Patients Control Robot With Brain Waves

sciencehabit writes with a writeup of a French research paper in Science. From the article: "They're not quite psychic yet, but machines are getting better at reading your mind. Researchers have invented a new, noninvasive method for recording patterns of brain activity and using them to steer a robot. Scientists hope the technology will give 'locked in' patients ... the ability to interact with others and even give the illusion of being physically present ... with friends and family." The really interesting thing here is that people who had not used their limbs in years were able to learn how to control the robot (as well as the control group did) after being trained only an hour a week for six weeks.

Comments

Wearable Robots

[bill_mcgonigle]

Being able to control an avatar is a great step, but it's not too hard to imagine coupling this with one of Kamen's iBOT vehicles to allow these people to regain some mobility. Throw some grappling arms on there and the person might even gain a bit of independence.

Other Project Like This

[jjp9999]

There's a project on Kickstarter about this right now, using Rovio robots and an EMOTIV headset. It's always interesting to see some form of new technology being worked on in a few places simultaneously - usually means something is about to hit big. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robots/robodance-5-telepresence-robotics-for-all-esp-the