Developing a Thought-Controlled Robotic Arm 
From: Medical Design Briefs - 07/22/2013

Dr. Albert Chi, a 2003 graduate of the University of Arizona College of
Medicine, Tucson, and a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore,
MD, is part of a team of engineers and surgeons developing a Modular
Prosthetic Limb - a robotic arm and hand that a person can control using
their thoughts. Patients wearing the still experimental robotic limb, say
they are able to point a prosthetic finger, grasp a ball, and flex their
wrist. In addition, they can distinguish between fingers, and detect the
difference between soft and hard objects.

The 100 sensors built into the arm are capable of "feeding back" temperature,
pressure, joint angles, and acceleration. In patients who are quadriplegic,
the Modular Prosthetic Limb requires cortical implants to convey neuronal
information to electronic sensors in the prosthesis. But for patients whose
spinal cord is intact, a new surgical technique is used to control the
prosthesis.

Image caption:
The hand (shown) and arm contain more than 100 sensors. Sensors at the
fingertip measure force, vibration, fine point contact, and temperature/heat
flux.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/component/content/article/16886

Link:
Thought-Controlled Robotic Arm 'Makes a Big Negative a Whole Lot Better'
http://www.uanews.org/story/thought-controlled-robotic-arm-makes-a-big-negative-a-whole-lot-better
http://medicine.arizona.edu/alumni/alumni-slide/thought-controlled-robotic-arm-%E2%80%98makes-big-negative-whole-lot-better%E2%80%99