DARPA Helps Paralyzed Man Feel Again Using a Brain-Controlled Robotic Arm
From: Medical Design Briefs - 12/01/2016

Neural interface opens new possibilities in prosthetics.

A DARPA-funded research team has demonstrated for the first time in a human a
technology that allows an individual to experience the sensation of touch
directly in the brain through a neural interface system connected to a
robotic arm. By enabling two-way communication between brain and machine -
outgoing signals for movement and inbound signals for sensation - the
technology could ultimately support new ways for people to engage with each
other and with the world.

The work was supported by DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics program, and
performed by the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center. The results were detailed in a study published online in the
journal Science Translational Medicine, and the technology was among a number
of advanced demonstrations presented to President Barack Obama at a White
House innovation event in Pittsburgh in October.

The volunteer for the study, Nathan Copeland, has lived with quadriplegia
from the upper chest down since a 2004 car accident that broke his neck and
injured his spinal cord. Nearly 10 years following his accident, after
agreeing to participate in clinical trials, Nathan underwent surgery to have
four micro-electrode arrays - each about half the size of a shirt button -
placed in his brain, two in the motor cortex and two in the sensory cortex
regions that correspond to feeling in his fingers and palm. The researchers
ran wires from those arrays to a robotic arm developed by the Applied Physics
Laboratory (APL) at Johns Hopkins University. The APL arm contains
sophisticated torque sensors that can detect when pressure is being applied
to any of its fingers, and can convert those physical "sensations" into
electrical signals that the wires carry back to the arrays in Nathan's brain
to provide precise patterns of stimulation to his sensory neurons.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/component/content/article/mdb/tech-briefs/26080

Links:
Providing a Sense of Touch through a Brain-Machine Interface (video 2:16)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4BR4Iqfy7w

DARPA Delivers LUKE Robotic Arm for Wounded Warriors (with video 2:23)
https://www.pddnet.com/news/2017/02/darpa-delivers-luke-robotic-arm-wounded-warriors

Revolutionizing Prosthetics
http://www.darpa.mil/program/revolutionizing-prosthetics