Arm-paralyzed persons will now become more independent, especially in self-feeding, because Johns Hopkins University researchers have constructed a brain-machine interface that links robotic arms to a partly paraplegic man's brain.
Johns Hopkins APL, TNO Sign Memorandum of Understanding on Collaborative Research and Technology Development
Robert “Buz” Chmielewski is using two modular prosthetic limbs developed by Johns Hopkins APL to feed himself dessert. Smart software puts his utensils in roughly the right spot, and then Buz uses his brain signals to cut the food with knife and fork. Once he is done cutting, the software then brings the food near his mouth, where he again uses brain signals to bring the food the last several inches to his mouth so he can eat it. Such human-machine interface systems are one of several disciplines that will be fostered through the recently signed memorandum of understanding between APL and TNO.
February 11, 2021 at 6:00 am
Gertrude the pig rooted around a straw-filled pen, oblivious to the cameras and onlookers and the 1,024 electrodes eavesdropping on her brain signals. Each time the pig’s snout found a treat in a researcher’s hand, a musical jingle sounded, indicating activity in her snout-controlling nerve cells.
Those beeps were part of the big reveal on August 28 by Elon Musk’s company Neuralink. “In a lot of ways, it’s kind of like a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires,” said Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, of the new technology.
Neuroscientists have been recording nerve cell activity from animals for decades. But the ambitions of Musk and others to link humans with computers are shocking in their reach. Future-minded entrepreneurs and researchers aim to listen in on our brains and perhaps even reshape thinking. Imagine being able to beckon our Teslas with our minds, Jedi-style.
app: Short for application, or a computer program designed for a specific task.
avatar: (in virtual reality) An electronic rendering of some image. It becomes the virtual form of some character (even a computer or game user) that will be moved and manipulated by a computer user. It can interact with its environment and other characters.
behavior: The way something, often a person or other organism, acts towards others, or conducts itself.
binge: To do or consume something to excess usually an unhealthy excess.
cell: The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the unaided eye, it consists of a watery fluid surrounded by a membrane or wall. Depending on their size, animals are made of anywhere from thousands to trillions of cells. Most organisms, such as yeasts, molds, bacteria and some algae, are composed of only one cell.