"As you can imagine, the results were very exciting to us."įor their most recent experiment, He's team has upped the ante, replacing the computer-simulated helicopters with small, remote-controlled ARDrone quadcopters. "To my knowledge, this was the first time anyone had used a non-invasive approach to simulate movement in three dimensions," says He. The volunteers flew the virtual helicopters through more than 85 percent of the rings, a feat that He says is very encouraging. The investigators wanted to determine how well the sensors could detect intended movement. In the 2011 study, volunteers were asked to steer a virtual helicopter through a series of rings that appeared on the screen in front of them. By combining the information provided by the different technologies, the researchers were able to detect the individual signals with better resolution, making it possible to decode them. Several years ago, He's team began pairing these recordings with other technologies, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). It couldn't provide the high resolution necessary to effectively decode what the signals meant. In 2011, He's team showed that it was possible for volunteers outfitted with a specially designed cap containing electroencephalography sensors to fly a virtual helicopter in real-time using only their minds.Įlectroencephalography has been around for decades, but until recently, it could only be used to record brain activity. Now imagine if a non-invasive approach could yield the same crisp signal, making it possible for individuals to navigate and interact with the environment without undergoing brain surgery.įor He and his colleagues, that is the ultimate goal. The medical risks associated with brain surgery and chronic brain implants are not insignificant, particularly for individuals whose health is already compromised by an injury or paralysis. The drawback is that this approach is incredibly invasive. This is because the electrical activity generated by a single thought is extremely weak: The further you get from the signal, the more likely that it will be drowned out by the steady hum of activity in the brain. The most successful BCIs developed so far are those that rely on electrodes surgically implanted in the brain. Recent advances have allowed quadriplegic patients to control a wheelchair, eat chocolate and drink coffee, all without lifting a finger. While mind-reading sounds more like science fiction than science fact, researchers have been pursuing this type of technology for the past several decades. With the help of this interface, volunteers have been able to precisely control the flight of simulated and small model helicopters using only their minds. Led by Bin He, Ph.D., director of the Biomedical Functional Imaging and Neuroengineering Laboratory, the team has created a non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) that could one day restore mobility and independence to individuals with amputated limbs, paralysis and other impairments that prevent or limit normal movement. A team of scientists and engineers at the University of Minnesota is giving new meaning to the old adage: "mind over matter."
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