Swiss Scientists Demonstrate Mind-controlled Robot
Swiss scientists have demonstrated how a partially paralyzed person can control a robot using brain signals alone.
The team at Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne says the experiment takes them a step closer to enabling immobile patients to easily interact with their surroundings through a robot avatar.
The demonstration, which took place on April 24, 2012, involved a partially tetraplegic patient at a hospital in the southern Swiss town of Sion who imagined lifting his fingers to direct a robot at the university 100 kilometers (62 miles) away.
Similar experiments have taken place in the United States and Germany. However, they either involved able-bodied patients or invasive brain implants, while the Swiss team used only a simple head cap to record the brain signals.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
