I started to look at the article from which the photo I nabbed for the last post is from. Now I’m wondering how I could’ve missed this article when it first came out! This is some amazing stuff!
RCS Highlights:
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a contract for up to $34.5 million.. to manage the development and testing of the Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL) system on human subjects, using a brain-controlled interface….
The final design — the MPL — offers 22 degrees of motion, including independent movement of each finger, in a package that weighs about nine pounds (the weight of a natural limb). Providing nearly as much dexterity as a natural limb, the MPL is capable of unprecedented mechanical agility and is designed to respond to a user’s thoughts… ”Now, in Phase 3, we are ready to test it with humans to demonstrate that the system can be operated with a patient’s thoughts and that it can provide that patient with sensory feedback, restoring the sensation of touch.”…
Last year [they] showed that a pair of macaque monkeys with tiny chips implanted in their brains could operate a robotic arm just by thinking about it… Within the year, the APL-led team will initiate testing with a high spinal cord injury patient. “Initially, we have targeted the quadriplegic patient population because they have the most to gain,” McLoughlin explained. “Unlike most amputee patients who have other options in terms of care and independence, these patients are totally dependent on others for most things. There is no alternative. Their lives will be truly transformed by this advancement.“…
McLoughlin commented, “The results of this program will help upper-limb amputees and spinal cord injury patients, as well as others who have lost the ability to use their natural limbs, to have as normal a life as possible despite severe injuries or degenerative neurological disease.”
