Mind over matter helps paralysed woman control robotic arm..!

Hi all

Another giant leap in technology now means that people who are paralyzed now have a chance of being able to do everyday things in life that many of us take for granted..

A woman who is paralysed from the neck down has stunned doctors with her extraordinary skill at using a robotic arm that is controlled by her thoughts alone.

The 52-year-old patient, called Jan, lost the use of her limbs more than 10 years ago to a degenerative disease that damaged her spinal cord. The disruption to her nervous system was the equivalent to having a broken neck.

Meet Jan..


I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been for her to slowly lose the use of her limbs.. So this will hopefully give her a new lease of life and make her life a bit easier for her.

She is obviously trying her very best to make this work for her.. And good on her..!

But in training sessions at the University of Pittsburgh, doctors found she quickly learned to make fluid movements with the brain-controlled robotic arm, reaching levels of performance never seen before.

"We were blown away by how fast she was able to acquire her skill, that was completely unexpected," said Andrew Schwartz, professor of neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh.

"At the end of a good day, when she was making these beautiful movements, she was ecstatic."

The connection...



www.guardian.co.uk...

This brought a smile to my face as i read through the article.. She will only get better and better with practice.
Kudos to you Jan..!

Peace
fluffx

Next step is to make it wireless and cover the hand/arm with some kind of synthetic skin so it looks "normal".

Decades from now, people might actually consider replacing their body parts with robotic ones that are stronger. Ghost in the Shell here we come!!

reply to post by fluff007


Good for her. And bravo to the scientists and technicians that keep on going on and on. This is the way forward.

...forward to the Borg.

One day disabled people will be at a physical advantage over non disabled people. Nice find s/f

reply to post by purplemer


Good point.

I also believe we will reach a point where robotic limbs become more efficient than real limbs. When these limbs go wireless and the motion is better as well as being able to link to the internet and lift heavy objects, things could get interesting.

Who would you rather hire, a guy limited to picking up 40 or 50 pounds or someone with robotic limbs that can lift 100, 200 or 300 pounds?

Would you rather hire someone you have to buy a computer terminal for or someone that's linked up to the internet through there robotic arm and they can make any flat surface a computer monitor?

I didn't notice of it was mentioned but is there some kind of feedback sensors to let her know shes touching things? and i also wonder if they put it closer to where her real arm is and dress it with some human like skin and a shirt sleeve if she would actually do even better using it. sort of like the therapy for phantom limb syndrome with mirrors and the trick where they get you used to a fake limb and trick your mind into thinking its yours.

This topic and thread has been chosen to be discussed by the ATS LIVE crew this Saturday night between 6-9pm pst (9-12 est), as part of this weeks exciting "Turbo Topics" segment.


We are running 256kbps through the ATS Player but we now run a 32kbps stream for those of you with slower connections and there are also options to listen via other players on our relay site at Illustrial Website.

You can connect to the low bandwidth stream by clicking here. ATSLive on ShoutCast


For more information and past shows, be sure to check out the ATSLive Show Threads Here.

Hope you'll listen in to the show!
Johnny

reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous


Oh cool..! Thanks very much... didnt expect this when i logged in today

I will indeed have a listen in ... i live in the UK and was wondering what time i should listen in to over here..

Thanks again Johnny..!


peace
fluffx