Doctor Spaceman

The future is not so far! Lightsabers are coming next.

prepostmortem:

Researchers Aim for Direct Brain Control of Prosthetic Arms

Engineering researchers at four U.S. universities are embarking on a four-year project to design a prosthetic arm that amputees can control directly with their brains and that will allow them to feel what they touch. While it may sound like science fiction, the researchers say much of the technology has already been proven in small-scale demonstrations.

The research at Rice University, the University of Michigan, Drexel University and the University of Maryland is made possible by a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Human-Centered Computing program.

“There’s nothing fictional about this,” said Rice University co-principal investigator Marcia O’Malley. “The investigators on this grant have already demonstrated that much of this is possible. What remains is to bring all of it — noninvasive neural decoding, direct brain control and tactile sensory feedback — together into one device.”

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In tests at the University of Maryland, University of Michigan engineering researcher Brent Gillespie uses a prototype of a device that provides feedback to the wearer’s arm while objects are moved with a prosthetic ‘hand,’ a gripper. The prototype, which incorporates noninvasive monitoring of electrical activity and blood-oxygen levels in the brain, may be incorporated into next-generation prosthetic arms. Credit J. Contreras-Vidal/University of Maryland.

(via pre-postmortem)