LAT: Device for the Paralyzed Turns Thinking to Doing

[robcon]

Is this a great world... or what?

Device for the Paralyzed Turns Thinking to Doing
December 7, 2004
By Robert Lee Hotz, Times Staff Writer

NEW YORK — "Harnessing the electrical echoes of thought, researchers have developed a way for people to control a computer cursor simply by thinking about it.

The device, which so far has been tested successfully on four people, does not require implants, surgery or any other invasive medical procedure, the researchers reported Monday. Previous efforts required electrodes wired directly into brain cells.

Instead, scientists at the New York State Department of Health and the State University of New York designed a system to monitor the faint electricity that naturally radiates from every brain and then created special computer software to translate those reflections of thought into direct action.

The research, which was made public in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, appears to offer a means for people paralyzed by stroke, spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) to operate computers or prosthetic devices by imagining the movement.

"It is an impressive achievement," said John Donoghue, a senior neuroscientist at Brown University who was not involved in the research project. "Such a device has great potential to improve the lives of paralyzed individuals."...

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-sci-thought7dec07.story

[Journeyman]

1. "These are the days of miracle and wonder. . ."

sang Paul Simon.

How true. . . how true.

[ooglymoogly]

2. this is truly wonderful but psyops and the thought police can't

be far behind. ah that we did not live in a dictatorship.