Monkey controls robot hand through brain implants

[Atheist-Lite]

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/short ... f-the-day/

Monkey controls robot hand through brain implants

Jianhui manipulates objects with his hands and gets a drink as a reward. Unknown to him, not far away a robot hand mirrors his fingers' moves as it receives instructions from the chips implanted in his brain.

Zheng Xiaoxiang of the Brain-Computer Interface Research Team at Zhejiang University in Zijingang, China, and colleagues announced earlier this week that they had succeeded in capturing and deciphering the signals from the monkey's brain and interpreting them into the real-time robotic finger movements.

The two sensors implanted in Jianhui's brain monitor just 200 neurons in his motor cortex, Zheng says. However, this was enough to accurately interpret the monkey's movements and control the robotic hand.

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