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prakash.patil
Sanjib.Acharya
Yes, this is very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Researchers to link brain, artificial limbs
Rick Merritt
7/27/2011 1:12 PM EDT
Four universities won a $1.2 million grant to develop prosthetics that deliver sensory information to patients and can be controlled by their thoughts. Rice University, the University of Michigan, Drexel University and the University of Maryland will work on the four-year project with funds from the National Science Foundation's Human-Centered Computing program.
Researchers at Rice will build a prosthetic arm that can be controlled by a cap of electrodes that read electrical activity on the scalp using electroencephalography. The EEG information will be combined with real-time data about blood-oxygen levels in the user's frontal lobe using functional near-infrared technology developed by Drexel's brain imaging lab.
The prosthetic will include sensors that gather tactile data from its artificial fingertips and information from the hand about the amount of force it uses in grasping. The data will be fed back to the user via touch pads that vibrate, stretch and squeeze the skin where the prosthesis attaches to the body.
The approach is seen as a more capable alternative to today's interfaces that use muscle contractions on the chest or arm to control a prosthetic. "Long term, we hope prosthetics have the same capabilities as natural limbs," said Marcia O'Malley, a co-principal investigator at Rice, speaking in an online video.
The group previously demonstrated a prosthetic gripper that allowed amputees to correctly perceive and manipulate objects based upon sensory feedback. University of Maryland researchers have demonstrated a technique using EEG signals that allowed test subjects to move a cursor on a computer screen simply by thinking about it.
"What remains is to bring all of it--noninvasive neural decoding, direct brain control and tactile sensory feedback--together into one device," said O'Malley, speaking in a press statement.
"Ideally, [our] tactile or haptic feedback will make it easier for patients to get their prosthetic arms to do exactly what they want them to do," said Patricia Shewokis, a researcher at Drexel.
O'Malley said the new technology is a big leap over existing prosthetic devices which don't allow amputees to feel what they touch. Some prostheses today use force-feedback systems that vibrate--like the vibrate mode on a mobile phone--to provide limited information about objects a prosthetic hand is gripping.
"Often, these vibro-tactile cues aren't very helpful," O'Malley said. "Many times individuals simply rely on visual feedback--watching their prosthesis grasp an object--to infer whether the object is soft or hard, [or] how tightly they are grasping it, [so] there's a lot of room for improvement," she said.
A year ago the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded Johns Hopkins a $34.5 million grant to create an interface using neural sensors implanted in the brain to control a prosthetic. The four-year project will use an artificial arm with 22-degrees of motion developed at the university.
Better prosthetics has been a focus for DARPA since the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars where bombs have maimed many soldiers. The agency's Human-Assisted Neural Devices program aims to let an amputee's thoughts control a mechanical hand. A follow on program on prosthetic arms includes the latest work with Johns Hopkins.
Researchers at Rice will build a prosthetic arm that can be controlled by a cap of electrodes that read electrical activity on the scalp using electroencephalography. The EEG information will be combined with real-time data about blood-oxygen levels in the user's frontal lobe using functional near-infrared technology developed by Drexel's brain imaging lab.
The prosthetic will include sensors that gather tactile data from its artificial fingertips and information from the hand about the amount of force it uses in grasping. The data will be fed back to the user via touch pads that vibrate, stretch and squeeze the skin where the prosthesis attaches to the body.
The approach is seen as a more capable alternative to today's interfaces that use muscle contractions on the chest or arm to control a prosthetic. "Long term, we hope prosthetics have the same capabilities as natural limbs," said Marcia O'Malley, a co-principal investigator at Rice, speaking in an online video.
The group previously demonstrated a prosthetic gripper that allowed amputees to correctly perceive and manipulate objects based upon sensory feedback. University of Maryland researchers have demonstrated a technique using EEG signals that allowed test subjects to move a cursor on a computer screen simply by thinking about it.
"What remains is to bring all of it--noninvasive neural decoding, direct brain control and tactile sensory feedback--together into one device," said O'Malley, speaking in a press statement.
"Ideally, [our] tactile or haptic feedback will make it easier for patients to get their prosthetic arms to do exactly what they want them to do," said Patricia Shewokis, a researcher at Drexel.
O'Malley said the new technology is a big leap over existing prosthetic devices which don't allow amputees to feel what they touch. Some prostheses today use force-feedback systems that vibrate--like the vibrate mode on a mobile phone--to provide limited information about objects a prosthetic hand is gripping.
"Often, these vibro-tactile cues aren't very helpful," O'Malley said. "Many times individuals simply rely on visual feedback--watching their prosthesis grasp an object--to infer whether the object is soft or hard, [or] how tightly they are grasping it, [so] there's a lot of room for improvement," she said.
A year ago the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded Johns Hopkins a $34.5 million grant to create an interface using neural sensors implanted in the brain to control a prosthetic. The four-year project will use an artificial arm with 22-degrees of motion developed at the university.
Better prosthetics has been a focus for DARPA since the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars where bombs have maimed many soldiers. The agency's Human-Assisted Neural Devices program aims to let an amputee's thoughts control a mechanical hand. A follow on program on prosthetic arms includes the latest work with Johns Hopkins.
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Sanjib.Acharya
7/27/2011 1:41 PM EDT
This seems to be a novel project indeed. Is there any work being also being done to re-activate the functioning of the limbs paralyzed due to some accidents or some other reasons?
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Luis Sanchez
7/27/2011 5:05 PM EDT
Yes there is work in this regards.
The limbs that no longer "work" due so because the nervs have suffered damage and these are of the few cells in our bodies that don't grow again. Recently it has been discovered that this is because when a nerv cell has beed damaged, some kind of protein builds up between the two parts of the cut cell, this stops the cell from growing. They tested in mice to insert a substance that disolves such protein and the result is as expected, the nerv cells repaired and the mice recovered limb movility. I don't have refferences at the moment but, this is cutting edge research and not yet tested on humans. Cool isn't it?!
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Sanjib.Acharya
7/31/2011 12:50 AM EDT
Yes, this is very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
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pedro-juan
7/27/2011 3:43 PM EDT
4 universities get 1.2 million to build the whole thing [arm and interface] and John Hopkins gets 34.5 million from DARPA to build just the interface. It is clear to see who is more serious about this type of project.
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nosubject
7/27/2011 4:50 PM EDT
This technology had existed for more than 5yrs. It will get matured in another several years. This is not a news.
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chanj
7/27/2011 5:27 PM EDT
If an interface between electronic and nerve cell can be build, an artificial limb will be controlled w/o minimal training to the patience. I had this dream when I broke my leg years back. This research is a step forward. However, will $1.2M be a bit of a small number?
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lifewingmate
7/27/2011 11:30 PM EDT
@chanj, I completely agree with your question/concern that four universities must share the grant. I think this story is newsworthy because it is one of many important steps to the development of advanced and hopefully lower cost prosthetics that perform and last. I can think of people in developing countries who may be suffering and also for people who have been in landmine or other kinds of accidents. This is also specifically important for the aging population. Great story and loved the multi-media links!
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Dave.Dykstra
7/28/2011 1:30 AM EDT
DARPA quite likely had more money last year to award on what it considers to be a high priority project. On the other hand, the NSF is working from what are probably somewhat more limited funds and this is only one of many varied projects for it. Good thing DARPA isn't trying to award that this year with the current budget crisis.
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agk
7/28/2011 4:02 AM EDT
The prosthetic devices with low weight and low cost with long battery life will find it helpfull for many. LEt them be made soon .
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wilber_xbox
7/28/2011 4:39 AM EDT
I saw a functioning prosthetic arm on Jon Stuart's Daily show and i was very amazed. But if all the other functions such as the feedback mechanism, feel of the object can be incorporated then it will be big step forward. Only sad news in the article is the amount of grant provided.
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prakash.patil
8/1/2011 1:47 AM EDT
FANTASTIC IDEA SEND TECHNICAL DETAILS OF THE SAME
WITH REGARDS
PRAKASH PATIL
INDIA
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