It's been the stuff of science fiction for years, specifically, the ability to download one's consciousness from a physical body and implant it into a much more durable—and in some cases much more mobile—body. While we've largely been unable to do anything like that outside of science fiction, the tide is changing, and for one paralyzed man who's recovered his mobility with the aid of a kind of telepresence robot controlled by his thoughts, it's already here.
Switzerland's Federal Institute of Technology today used a head cap to record brain signals coming from Mark-Andre Duc, a paralyzed man who was in a Swiss hospital in the town of Sion, fully 100 miles from the Institute in Lausanne. Essentially, Duc imagined himself moving, much like non-paralyzed people do when they actually move, and the impulses were transmitted back to the robot, which performed the motions that the robot carried out.
Duc described the process of controlling the robot as being comparatively easy on a good day, but on days when he's in pain, being somewhat more difficult. Considering that the robot's operation depends on mental focus to receive generated instructions, this isn't surprising... Read More
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