 |
ECoG Reads The Brain's Surface
ECoG - electrocorticography - uses a grid of electrodes surgically placed on the surface of the brain; it monitors electrical activity.
Eric Leuthardt and Dan Moran at Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis, and Gerwin Schalk at the Wadsworth Center, in Albany, NY, are developing a much smaller version that would be implanted long term to allow paralyzed patients to control a computer and perhaps prosthetic limbs and other devices.
(ECoG device array of electrodes)
"We're extremely excited about these signals because they are really opening a whole new avenue for extracting information from the brain in humans," says Schalk. "The nice thing about ECoG is that it targets a space that no other sensor technology has been in before.""With minimal learning efforts, we have been able to tune and train the system to recognize simple commands, like 'up,' and 'down,' and 'left' and 'right,'" says Shawn Lunney, Neurolutions' chief executive officer. Lunney estimates that patients can control a computer cursor with approximately 80 percent accuracy.
This technology may have significant benefits compared with other sensor implant technologies used to control external devices. ECoG can provide a higher level of control than EEG, which is susceptible to distortion as the signal travels through the skull and as the patient moves.
This is yet another line of scientific research that could lead to using nothing but the brain to efficiently control external devices, like Captain Christopher Pike's wheel chair from an original series Star Trek first broad cast in 1966.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 6/5/2009) | Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy: 
(Christoper Pike's Star Trek thought-controlled wheelchair)
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Related News Stories - (" Medical ")
CARMAT Bioprosthetic Total Human Heart Replacement
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'- Philip K. Dick, 1964.
Physical Exam? We've Got Apps
See the future of handheld, personal medical devices used with your smartphone.
Japan's Nursing Home Robot Plan
Let's make the Roujin Z-0001 Robotic Bed!
Mini-Livers Made By 3D Printer
Organlegging may not be the growth industry that some fear.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Current News
MIT Robot Cheetah Video Shows Gait Transition
'The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's.'
TrackingPoint Smart Rifle
Not your typical 'smart bullet' approach.
'Hello, Computer!' Google Now Highlighted at IO13
'Hello, computer!'
Sky City's 220 Stories Are Go
'It rested among green parklands and... stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors.'
CARMAT Bioprosthetic Total Human Heart Replacement
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'
Personal Sniffer Robots
'...The ticking combinations of the olfactory system of the hound.'
Physical Exam? We've Got Apps
See the future of handheld, personal medical devices.
The Interplanetary Internet, Vint Cerf Speaking
'This was the center of Interplanetary Communications.'
Drosophila Robotica, The Mechanical Fly
'... the Scarab [flying robot] buzzed into the great workroom as any intruding insect might...'
Robo-Raven Flapping Wing Robot Bird
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'
Japan's Nursing Home Robot Plan
Let's make the Roujin Z-0001 Robotic Bed!
Samsung Smart TVs With Gesture Control
'He waved his hand and the circuit switched abruptly.'
Swiss HCPVT Giant Photovoltaic 'Flower'
'...leaning against one of the slender stalks of a sunshade-photocell collector.'
Mini-Livers Made By 3D Printer
Organleggers may experience an employment downturn.
Smartphone Sensor System Tracks Gunfire
'Sound trackers on the roof could zero in on weapons action...'
Bacteria Now Make Biofuel Like Oil
'They have ... germs that eat pretty near anything, and produce oil as a waste product.'
