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Seven years ago, a serious motorcycle accident left a Pennsylvania man a quadriplegic. He thought he would never be able to hold his girlfriend’s hand or give his buddy a high-five again. However, because of cutting edge technology, the man recently did both of these things at his own will.
The 30-year-old, who has been in a wheelchair since his spinal cord injury seven years ago, was part of a month-long science experiment at the University of Pittsburgh that is aimed at perfecting thought-controlled prosthetics to give paralyzed people more autonomy.
“It wasn’t my arm but it was my brain, my thoughts. I was moving something,” the man told a Bloomberg reporter. “I don’t have one single word to give you what I felt at that moment. That word doesn’t exist.”
If all goes as planned, the robotic arm will give people who have lost the use of their own arms the ability to feed themselves, turn a doorknob and touch. However, researchers said that it will be years before the bionic arm is ready to be released commercially.
Simplified, the innovative process involves tiny chips being implanted in the brain that allow brain cells controlling movement to bypass the broken spinal cord and be relayed to the robotic third arm. The biotic arm is complete with fingers that move like the real thing.
Many science departments throughout the country are working on the device, which could forever change the lives of people who have suffered from serious spinal cord injuries.
At Pittsburgh, the biotic arm proved successful when tested on monkeys. The monkeys were eventually able to feed themselves by getting the robotic arm to move with only their thoughts. Monkeys at Duke were also able to move virtual arms on a computer and receive feedback that helped them determine what texture they were “touching.”
Although this technology may be years from benefitting the general public, researchers are reportedly looking for volunteers for upcoming year-long experiments. It could be an interesting opportunity for people in Pennsylvania who have been injured in catastrophic accidents.
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek, “Paralyzed man uses mind-powered robot arm to touch,” Lauran Neergaard, Oct. 10, 2011.