Behaviour of social insects like the ant could provide the model for tapping to into body’s electrical signals and moving artificial limbs more effectively.
Supervised by Dr Adel Al-Jumaily and Dr Ahmed Al-Ani of the School of Electrical, Mechanical and Mechatronic Systems, Khushaba, a PhD student with the University of Technology, Sydney is developing the mathematical basis for identifying what biosignals relate to particular arm movements and where electrodes should be placed to achieve the optimum result.
Amputated Soldiers Fitted With Bionic Arm Controlled by Thoughts
Doctors have fitted a US marine with a bionic arm that can be controlled by thought alone, giving a sigh of relief to a number of soldiers who have lost their limbs in wars.
Doctors have fitted a US marine with a bionic arm that can be controlled by thought alone, giving a sigh of relief to a number of soldiers who have lost their limbs in wars.
It has been known for some time that human muscle activity, known as the Electromyogram (EMG), carries the distinct signature of the voluntary intent of the central nervous system.
These myoelectric signals are already being used to control prosthetic devices, but there is a lot of refining to do before a robotic arm will respond instantaneously and accurately to the intention to move.
'Bionic Arm' Woman Begins Feeling Hot and Cold Sensations in Lost Limb
A woman marine, who was given a bionic arm controlled by thought, has got an odd side-effect of her surgery-she can feel hot and cold sensations in her lost limb.
A woman marine, who was given a bionic arm controlled by thought, has got an odd side-effect of her surgery-she can feel hot and cold sensations in her lost limb.
Improvement in analysing the myoelectric signals will spur improvement of the hardware, and that's where our work is directed, says Rami.
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Scientists Developing Motorised Artificial Limb That Responds to Brain Signals
Scientists are working on a motorised prosthetic arm that responds directly to signals from the brain, allowing it to perform more functions than existing artificial arms.
Scientists are working on a motorised prosthetic arm that responds directly to signals from the brain, allowing it to perform more functions than existing artificial arms.
"Current methods for capturing biosignals on the forearm can involve mounting up to 16 electrodes on the skin, generating a vast quantity of data to be processed. We have already demonstrated that applying swarm logic will both simplify that set-up and achieve significantly better results.
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New Ideas on Developing Thought-Controlled Artificial Limbs
Scientists have described a new type of nervous system interface that could be linked to the patient's thoughts providing...
Scientists have described a new type of nervous system interface that could be linked to the patient's thoughts providing...
"These few electrode positions achieved 97 per cent accuracy in capturing the crucial biosignals for movement. This significantly reduced the number of channels to be used for a real time problem, thus reducing the computational cost and enhancing the system's performance.
"The result was confirmed on a second dataset consisting of eight channels of EMG data collected from the right arm of thirty normally limbed subjects (twelve males and eighteen females).
"We hope one accuracy will lead to another and it will be the very near future when amputees, who can still imagine moving a lost limb, will have access to a device that can truly respond to their intentions."
And so the crossover from science fiction to science reality is that far away now, hopes Rami Khushaba.
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