Controlling Prosthetic Arm with Mind
Added Friday 04.12.2009European scientists have successfully managed to build a robotic arm that can be controlled via thoughts from the user.
In an experiment conducted last year, Pierpaolo Petruzziello moved a prosthetic limb with just his brain for an entire month. Petruzziello was left without his left arm from the elbow down following a car accident several years ago but with the new technology, the 26- year-old was able to feel sensations in the artificial limb.
"It felt almost the same as a real hand. They stimulated me a lot, even with needles ... you can't imagine what they did to me," the AP quotes Petruzziello as saying.
Surgery to attach the prosthetic involved implanting electrodes into the nerves located in what remained of Petruzziello's arm. The AP reports that once connected to his nervous system, Petruzziello was able to master moving the limb within a few days. By the end of the experiment, the robotic arm was responding to 95 percent of the commands it received from Petruzziello's brain.
The experiment so far has cost $3 million and has taken 5 years. The next step is to develop a more long term prosthesis that can be implanted for longer periods.
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