Mind Controlled Robotic Arm that Allows Paralyzed Man to Feel Again!!!

Imagine a world in which paralyzed men and woman could regain their sense of touch. Recently, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center collaborated to demonstrate a technology that allows a paralyzed patient to experience the sensation of touch through a robotic arm that he controls with his brain. The patient's name is Nathan Copeland, and he injured his spinal cord in a car accident in 2004, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down and without the sensation of touch since his accident.

For the experiment, four micro-electrode arrays were implanted in the sensory cortex of Copeland's brain last spring. This is where the neurons that control hand movement and touch are located. Before the surgery, imaging techniques were used to identify the exact location of Copeland's brain that corresponded to each of his fingers and his palm. These micro-electrode arrays allowed Copeland to be connected to the BCI or Brain Computer Interface.

BCIs work through using electrodes to connect the brain to a computer program. The electrodes in the brain measure the small differences in the voltage between the neurons, the nerve cells in our brains that transmit electric signals. This signal is then amplified and filtered. After that, the signal is read as input into a computer program and interpreted. This can also work the other way around; the computer can convert a signal, such as one from a robotic arm, into the voltage necessary to trigger neurons. The signals are transmitted to the electrodes in the right area of the brain and, when received, the neurons fire in that area.

In Copeland's case, he is the first human to have experienced a sensation of touch through a robotic arm. When the doctor touched each of the fingers on the robot's right hand, Copeland described the experience as a natural sensation of touch instead of tingling, and was able to identify correctly the exact location of each of the touches on his hand.

References:

Content:
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/brain-chip-helps-paralyzed-man-feel-his-fingers-n665881
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/10/13/in-a-medical-first-brain-implant-allows-paralyzed-man-to-feel-again/
http://www.upmc.com/media/NewsReleases/2016/Pages/bci_scitransl-lms.aspx
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/brain-computer-interface.htm

Images:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161013151356.htm
http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_41/1749331/161013-robotic-hand-mn-1104_bd769511961914a5a51eb1d3316f3b2f.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg