Communications of the ACM
This Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Robot Arm Lets You Actually Feel What It Touches
Credit: DARPA
At a conference in July, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) presented a robot arm that can be controlled by a human brain, and two months later DARPA says the technology now can enable the wearer to actually feel things.
Justin Sanchez, the project's program manager, says researchers blindfolded someone connected to the robot arm, and he was able to determine which fingers were being touched by the researchers. The technology is connected by wires that link up to the wearer's motor and sensory cortexes. Sanchez notes the participant was able to recognize which of his fingers had been touched, even when the researchers tried to trick him by touching two fingers at once. The person asked whether someone was trying to play a trick on him, according to Sanchez. "That is when we knew that the feelings he was perceiving through the robotic hand were near-natural," he says. "We've completed the circuit. Prosthetic limbs that can be controlled by thoughts are showing great promise."
From NextGov.com
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