A new study in Nature reports that two people with tetraplegia were able to reach for and grasp objects in three-dimensional space using robotic arms that they controlled directly with brain activity. They used the BrainGate neural interface system, an investigational device currently being studied under an Investigational Device Exemption. One participant used the system to serve herself coffee for the first time since becoming paralyzed nearly 15 years ago.

Robert Siegel speaks with Dr. Leigh Hochberg, neurologist and engineer at Brown University and the VA Medical Center in Providence, R.I. Hochberg is the lead author of a new study that looks at how paralyzed people are able to move robotic arms with their thoughts, due to a microchip that is implanted in their brains that sends neural signals to a computer.

Two patients in the United States who are paralysed from the neck down have been able to control a robotic arm using their thoughts. It allowed one to drink unaided for the first time in nearly 15 years.The technique, described in the journal Nature, links a sensor implanted in the brain to a computer, which translates electrical signals into commands.

Two people who are virtually paralyzed from the neck down have learned to manipulate a robotic arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach out and grab objects. One of them, a woman, was able to retrieve a bottle containing coffee and drink it from a straw – the first time she had served herself since her stroke 15 years earlier, scientists reported on Wednesday.

It had been 11 years since a stroke left Cathy Hutchinson paralyzed from the neck down, unable to speak, but completely aware. A sensor with 100 electrodes was surgically placed on her brain to pick up the electrical signals brains create when we think about movement. The sensor was wired to a computer through a connection bolted to her skull. John Donoghue, at Brown University, developed the system after decoding some of the brain’s electrical language.

Two stroke victims unable to move or speak can now control a robotic arm with their minds. By thinking about moving her own paralyzed arm, one woman in the experiment used an artificial limb to serve herself coffee for the first time in 15 years. It’s the most complex task yet achieved with a brain-computer interface.

A woman who lost the use of her limbs after a devastating stroke nearly 15 years ago has taken a sip of coffee by guiding a robotic arm with her thoughts. The 58-year-old used a brain implant to control the robot and bring a flask of the coffee to her lips, the first time she had picked up anything since she was paralysed and left unable to speak by a catastrophic brain stem stroke.

On April 12, 2011, Cathy Hutchinson, then 58, used signals in her brain to pick up a bottle of coffee and take a drink. It might not sound all that significant until you consider that Ms. Hutchinson was completely paralyzed nearly 15 years ago after a brain-stem stroke. But on that day in April last year, Ms. Hutchinson was able to fetch coffee with the help of a robotic arm that used a small device implanted in her head, called BrainGate, to read the electrical signals in her brain.

A quadripalegic woman has used her mind to control a robotic arm, taking a sip from a drink bottle unassisted for the first time in 15 years. The 58-year-old American was one of two people, both paralysed from the neck down by a stroke, whose brains have been implanted with a tiny electronic device that translates neural impulses into commands that operate a robotic limb.

Was wie Science Fiction klingt, ist Realität geworden: Patienten, die von Kopf bis Fuss gelähmt sind, können allein mit ihren Gedanken einen Roboterarm steuern und damit nach Gegenständen greifen. Eine amerikanisch Forschergruppe mit Beteiligung des Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt hat das Unvorstellbare bei zwei paralysierten Patienten filmisch dokumentiert und als Bericht in der jüngsten Ausgabe der Fachzeitschrift “Nature” publiziert.

Scientists in the United States have enabled a paralysed woman to lift a drink to her lips with a thought-controlled robotic arm, boosting hopes that tetraplegics may regain their independence. On April 12 last year, 58-year-old Cathy Hutchinson made history by using only her thoughts to get a robotic arm to grasp a flask of coffee on a table, lift it and hold it to her lips for a sip, the researchers said.

Buone notizie dalle neuroscienze applicate. Un dispositivo sperimentale, realizzato dai ricercatori della Brown University, ha permesso a una donna paralizzata da 15 anni di afferrare un bicchiere e bere da sola guidando con il pensiero un braccio robotico. La sperimentazione, finanziata dai National Institutes of Health, rappresenta il punto finora più evoluto di ciò che è possibile ottenere tramite un sistema di interfaccia cervello-computer.

Kaksi halvaantunutta koehenkilöä onnistuivat ohjaamaan robottikättä ajatuksen voimalla, raportoivat tutkijat Naturessa. He pystyivät hallitsemaan selvästi mutkikkaampia toimintoja kuin mihin kädelliskokeissa on ylletty. Robottikättä liikutetaan aivoihin kytketyn neuraalisen käyttöliittymän NIS:n välityksellä. Käyttöliittymä koostuu pienen lääketabletin kokoisesta anturista, joka seuraa aivosolujen viestintää tekojen toteuttamista ohjaavalla liikeaivokuorella. Tietokone kääntää viestit digitaalisiksi ohjeiksi robottikädelle.