Science continues to find new ways to unlock the power of the human brain.
According to Futurity, a new computer interface has allowed a man paralyzed in a motorcycle accident seven years ago to use his mind to control his prosthetic arm.
Conducted by the University of Pittsburgh, the project uses a grid of electrodes placed on the surface of the brain to control the arm. Tim Hemmes used the new system to touch hands with his girlfriend during a recent test.
It was a unique robotic arm and hand, designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, that Hemmes willed to extend first toward the palm of a researcher on the team and, a few minutes later, to his girlfriend’s hand.
“I put my heart and soul into everything they asked me to do,” Hemmes said. “I got to reach out and touch somebody for the first time in seven years.”
“Seeing Tim reach out with a mechanical arm to touch his girlfriend was an unexpected and poignant bonus for all of us who are involved with this exciting project,” says co-principal investigator Michael Boninger, M.D., director of the UPMC Rehabilitation Institute.
“This first round of testing reinforces the great potential BCI technology holds for not only helping spinal cord-injured patients become more independent, but also enhancing their physical and emotional connections with their friends and family,” adds Boninger, who also is professor and chair of the physical medicine and rehabilitation department. “It further motivates us to make this technology useful and available to those who need it.”
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