Researchers at the University of Minnesota have made a major breakthrough that allows people to control a robotic arm using only their minds. The research has the potential to help millions of people who are paralyzed or have neurodegenerative diseases.
The study is published online today in Scientific Reports, a Nature research journal.
To read the full research paper, entitled “Noninvasive Electroencephalogram Based Control of a Robotic Arm for Reach and Grasp Tasks,” visit the NatureScientific Reports website.
Groundbreaking study demonstrates potential to help millions of people with disabilities.
UK’s National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) is launching trials to fully automate the corrosion inspection of electricity transmission pylons with the help of autonomous drones.
NGET owns 21,900 steel lattice pylons that carry overhead transmission conductor wires in England and Wales. Transmission pylon steelwork conditions can deteriorate through corrosion, so periodic assessments are made to understand the health of the network. NGET inspects around 3,650 steel lattice pylons each year, capturing high definition still color images of steelwork using helicopters and manually-operated drones.
Alan DeRossettElon holds a grudge after nearly 20 years of Putin bots and fossil fuel cater calling him and Tesla owners losers stay tuned to the next episode as Elons lawyers prove Twitter has millions of bots and fake users More than it legally said in Elons contr… See more.
Steven PostrelThe incompetence of this bad cut-and-paste article is notable. The S&P 500 is not new, not ESG related, and not dropping Tesla.
There is a separate “S&P 500 ESG” product that is relatively new and that dropped Tesla, but it isn’t the benchmark that a… See more.
A Massachusetts company says it could help stop shootings like the Tops massacre in Buffalo. Its surveillance product is increasingly popular — and, critics say, problematic.
DeepMind has released what it calls a “generalist” AI called Gato, which can play Atari games, accurately caption images, chat naturally with a human and stack coloured blocks with a robot arm, among 600 other tasks. But is Gato truly intelligent – having artificial general intelligence – or is it just an AI model with a few extra tricks up its sleeve?
What is artificial general intelligence (AGI)?
Outside science fiction, AI is limited to niche tasks. It has seen plenty of success recently in solving a huge range of problems, from writing software to protein folding and even creating beer recipes, but individual AI models have limited, specific abilities. A model trained for one task is of little use for another.
This AI powered prosthetic arm understands what you think. Muscle-controlled prosthetic limbs that patients with amputations across the globe currently use have various limitations and challenges. Good quality prosthetics parts are cumbersome, come with a complex setup, and require patients to undergo training for several months to learn their use. Interestingly, a new technology proposed by a team of researchers at the University of Minnesota (UMN) can overcome all such challenges.
It may sound like science-fiction, but the researchers claim that the new technology would allow patients to control robotic body parts using their thoughts. By employing artificial intelligence and machine learning, the researchers at UMN have developed a portable neuroprosthetic hand. The robotic hand comes equipped with a nerve implant linked to the peripheral nerve in a patient’s arm.
Explaining the significance of their neuroprosthetic innovation, project collaborator and UMN neuroscientist Edward Keefer said, “We are well along the way toward allowing upper limb amputees at least, and other people in the future, to have totally natural and intuitive control of their prosthetic devices.” ## THE NEUROPROSTHETIC HAND IS DIFFERENT FROM YOUR REGULAR PROSTHETIC LIMBS
The prosthetic body parts currently available on the market detect shoulder, chest, or muscle movement. They have sensors to recognize signals in specific regions of the human body. Therefore, every time a patient wants to move his hand, he is required to trigger his body muscles. Adapting to such muscle-driven limb movement is not easy for patients, and many such devices are not suitable for physically weak individuals.
Some advanced and efficient muscle-sensitive prosthetics come with complex wiring and other arrangements that make them difficult to use. The amputees have to go through a lot of training to adjust to such devices, which often increases frustration and stress. Now imagine a device that starts working immediately, is less invasive, requires no training, no muscle activation, and no complex setup.
The neuroprosthetic arm enables the patients to move their arms simply at the will of their minds. It is an efficient, easy to use, and a lot more intuitive alternative to any commercial prosthetic system available.
The long term goal for Elon Musk and brain to computer interfaces (brain chips) is to merge our minds with artificial intelligence. While the short term goal for Neuralink and other companies is to help people with medical issues.
This short documentary video takes a look at connecting our brains to computers, and how this works is explained. We also take a look at the downsides of people connecting their brains, the technology being used today, and Elon Musk’s thoughts.
Other topics in the video include: • How in the future we could download and upload our memories and dreams so they are not forgotten. • The different types of brain to computer implants and devices. • Updates (demonstrating and testing on pigs, and soon humans) and a summery of where we are today with this technology. • Tutorial on how it works. • And what other sci-fi like things will brains connected to computers allow us humans to do.
