A paralysed man is regaining his sense of touch thanks to a mind-controlled robotic hand.
Yes, that’s right, Nathan Copeland had tiny chips implanted into his brain to bypass his broken spinal cord. Incredible.
The little devices send electrical signals that govern movement to and from the mechanic arm, meaning that the 30-year-old can touch and even pick up items.
However, he can only do so when connected to the robotic device.
Today, University of Pittsburgh researchers revealed the first six months of findings – and from the look of things, the experiment appears to be a success.
Blindfolding Copeland in 2015, staff were amazed that he could correctly identify which robotic finger they touched 84 percent of the time.
Copeland, from Dunbar, Pennsylvania, said: ‘The majority of them, it felt like a pressure or a tingling. When a researcher touched two fingers at the same time, I just laughed and I said “Are you trying to be tricky or something?”‘
Copeland’s cells also responded to the electric stimulation even though the car wreck that left him mostly paralysed happened over a decade ago.
Pittsburgh neurobiologist Andrew Schwartz said: ‘This shows you can get natural sensation through the brain implant.’
The ongoing research is now becoming more sophisticated, and Copeland is able to pick up objects while the electrodes stimulate different amounts of force.
However, he doesn’t get to take the robotic arm home when the experiment is finished.
Copeland said: ‘Technically when it’s over, I will have netted nothing except having done some cool stuff with some cool people.
‘It’s cheesy but, Luke Skywalker loses his hand and then basically the next day he’s got a robot one and it’s working fine. We have to get to that point, and to do that, someone has to start it.’
