Robot arm controlled by thought

Japanese scientists have successfully crafted a thought-controlled robotic arm that marks an important milestone in making body parts replace human body parts and can be controlled. by thought.

This robotic arm mimics the movement of the human arm based on the magnetic field resonance recognition in the real-time feature (fMRI) of the activity. Brainstorming people. The system was researched and manufactured by Yukiyasu Kamitani and colleagues at the ATR Laboratory of Neuroscience (in Kyoto) and scientists from Honda Research Institute (in Saitama).

Conducting experiments with the requirement to hand out simple shapes such as 'scissors', 'hammer' and 'bao', scientists used an MRI scanner to record brain activity when processing each of these shapes and then providing data to the computer.

After a short period of training, the computer is able to identify brain activity that is compatible with each of the different signs and these commands will be passed through the robot arm controller.An fMRI machine will explore brain activity by examining blood flow in different regions . It uses magnetic fields associated with radio frequency pulses to probe the magnetic state of hydrogen atoms in the water molecules of neural tissues.

It is also possible to use a more convenient method of electroencephalography using electrodes implanted in brain tissue under the skin or scalp. Human skull electrodes can also be used to control cursor movement on computer screens like Klaus-Robert Mueller's research at Fraunhofer berlin Institute, Germany. Klaus-Robert Mueller argues that fMRI technology is complex and expensive but can help scientists better understand brain work because they offer higher resolution.

Although this technique has a very high cost and slow processing speed, it is very interesting because it can be done quite a lot of complicated tasks. Kamitani and his colleagues have shown that fMRI scanning can be used to distinguish simple images that people are looking at and thinking about.

Kamitani believes that one day the robot arm can respond faster than a real person. The next step for this team is to decode faster, even before people perform executive movements on their arms by reading brain activities and relating to the corresponding concept.

But Japanese scientists also admit that fMRI scanning technology must be improved before being applied to reality, it requires the technology involved with this technique as the scanner hardware must be improved. before applying in daily life.

WALL VY