A Feeling Touch
May 31, 2016 | CaltechEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Caltech biologist Richard Andersen is working to incorporate a sense of touch into the neural prosthetics he has been helping develop for years—devices implanted in the brain that allow a paralyzed patient to manipulate a robotic arm.
Andersen and colleagues first reported success of their original implant in early 2015. The team, led by Andersen, placed their prosthesis in the posterior parietal cortex, an area that controls the intent to move rather than controlling movement directly as previous experiments had done. This allowed Erik Sorto, a 35-year-old man who has been paralyzed from the neck down for more than 10 years, to use a robotic arm placed next to his body to perform a fluid hand-shaking gesture, play rock-paper-scissors, and even grasp a bottle of beer and bring it to his mouth for a sip—something he had long dreamed of doing.
This research on how to make a robotic arm move resulted in a 2015 National Science Foundation grant to Andersen from President Obama's Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnology—or BRAIN—Initiative, as well as seed money from the California Blueprint for Research to Advance Innovations in Neuroscience (Cal-BRAIN) program, the California complement to the federal initiative, which gave out its first-ever monetary awards last year to a group of researchers that included Andersen.
Andersen is now using those Cal-BRAIN funds—designed to bring together interdisciplinary teams of scientists and engineers from diverse fields for fundamental brain research—to take his team's work to the next level. His hope is to enable people using robotic arms to literally regain their sense of touch—their ability to feel an object in their "hands."
Suggested Items
IDTechEx Examines the Opportunities for Wearables in Digital Health
04/19/2024 | IDTechExIDTechEx’s report, “Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence 2024-2034: Trends, Opportunities, and Outlook”, covers this ongoing trend in the consumer health wearables market and includes analysis of the opportunities and roadmap for biometric monitoring.
NCAB Appoints Tim Benjamin as New CFO
04/15/2024 | NCAB GroupNCAB Group has appointed Tim Benjamin as its new CFO. Tim has a long and broad experience of managerial business finance roles, including M&A and IT.
Plastronics and the New IPC Guidelines for In-mold Electronics (IME)
04/11/2024 | Barry Matties, I-Connect007In the ever-evolving world of electronics, the roads for the integration of electronics assemblies into 3D structures continue to grow into a set of technologies used to produce 3D plastronics parts and revolutionize mainly the automotive industry. IPC has been developing standards for this set of technologies, led by Francisco Fourcade, IPC electronics technology standards manager.
IEC USA Congratulates Bernie Consitt for 25 Years of Service
04/09/2024 | IECJoin us in celebrating Bernie Consitt's 25 years of service and camaraderie at IEC (International Electronic Components). Bernie has been instrumental in his role as Accounting Manager, helping to supervise, track, and evaluate day-to-day activities within the accounting team.
Helena Maripuu Joins Incap as Group Communication and IR Lead
04/08/2024 | IncapFrom 1 April, communications expert Helena Maripuu joined the headquarters and team of Incap, an international electronics manufacturing services company, to share her long-term experience in the communications and marketing industry and to take the lead in managing processes for Group communication and Investor Relations.