Mind-Controlled Prosthetics Under Development

A group of investigators from the University of Houston is currently engaged in researching and developing advanced prosthetic devices, that their users could control by the power of their minds alone. The study is being carried out for the Pentagon.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is providing the funds needed for this study which, if successful, could ensure that millions of amputees and other paralysis victims around the world could experience an improved quality of life.

This new equipments – mind-controlled prosthetic devices – could be worn by both military and civilian victims for the remainder of their lives. No longer will they have to act on their medical aids directly and mechanically, the UH team says.

Rather, users will simply have to think about what they want to do, and their prosthetics will do the processing for them. The brain will be in control, and the prosthetics will in effect act like muscles.

There are, however, several issues with constructing the brain-computer interface (BCI) required for those kinds of devices to work. In lab experiments, the technology has proven to be very promising, but it's still a very long way away from real-world applications.

Neural implants have proven to be among the most promising solutions for controlling the future prosthetics, but they are plagued by a major issue – they tend to fail within a matter of weeks.

So, in addition to constructing a BCI that can accurately relay neural impulses, experts will also have to produce one that is durable, and can withstand the harsh conditions in the human body.

The multi-institution team effort that DARPA is financing is led by the chair of the UH Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Badrinath Roysam. The expert is also the Hugh and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor at UH.

Under the three-year, $5.4-million grant, the investigator and his team need to determine the primary reasons that force neural implants to fail, and address those issues directly.

Aiding them in this study will be experts from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute, the University of Michigan, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and two private companies.

“I am blessed with a dream team. We have preeminent leaders in implant design, 3D multispectral imaging, quantitative histology, and pattern recognition on our team,” the UH professor says.

“Ideally, the team will be able to make great strides in the understanding of neural implant failure,” he goes on to say.

“DARPA has a vision of a future where a soldier who has lost a limb will regain full use of that limb again through advanced technology. We’re proud to be part of this effort, which will also benefit civilians,” Roysam concludes.