Lunch with an exoskeleton

The exoskeleton controlled by the power of thought helped the paralytics to have lunch

Nikolay Vorontsov, N+1

For the first time, an international group of researchers used an exoskeleton with a neurointerface to restore the limbs of partially paralyzed patients. The developed system can be mounted on a wheelchair and equipped with a false alarm protection mechanism. The results of the work are published in Science Robotics (Soekadar et al., Hybrid EEG/EOG-based brain/neural hand exoskeleton restores fully independent daily living activities after quadriplegia).

Here and below are drawings from an article in Science Robotics.

A neurointerface is a system that registers signals in the brain, which allows a person to literally send commands to a computer with the power of thought. Often such technologies are used for experimental rehabilitation of partially paralyzed people – for example, recently scientists from Case Western Reserve University with the help of a brain implant were able to teach a paralyzed person to control his hand. One of the common problems of modern neural interfaces is the instability of such systems. According to the authors of the new study, triggering in 90 percent of cases in practice means that a person in one case out of ten will drop a mug of hot coffee on himself.

In order to make the system more suitable for real use in everyday life, researchers have developed an exoskeleton controlled by a neurointerface with an additional belaying mechanism, which is implemented by a special eye movement sideways. An EEG headset was used to control the exoskeleton itself, and eye movements were recorded by electrooculography. This is done so that the exoskeleton does not execute any command by mistake - for example, it does not release the object in the hand ahead of time.

In total, six volunteers were invited to test the system. All the subjects got used to the system in 8-10 minutes, having learned to perform a hand grip and interrupt an unexpected movement with the help of EOG. The system was mounted on a wheelchair for use outside the laboratory and volunteers were able to visit a restaurant where they could take a bottle in their hand and drink from it, use a fork, take and transfer a bank card, as well as eat chips with their hands and sign the bill after payment.

The system consists of an EEG headset, an exoskeleton,
motion controller and tablet computer.

In total, each volunteer spent four hours with an exoskeleton controlled by a neurointerface, while using EOG, 16.3 ± 4.5 percent of the exoskeleton movements were interrupted. The subjects described the tested system as applicable in everyday life and did not report any side effects or discomfort. According to the researchers, the system can be effectively used in the daily life of paralyzed people, since it does not require surgical intervention to install a neurointerface, is easy to learn and has a mechanism to protect against false positives.

Neurointerfaces are often used in experimental medicine, especially in the rehabilitation of partially or completely paralyzed people. At the University of California, for example, a person who was completely paralyzed from the waist down was taught to walk, and researchers from the Universities of Pittsburgh and Chicago returned touch to a volunteer in an amputated arm, after which he was able to feel touch with a prosthesis.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  08.12.2016