Paralysed man flies virtual drone using just his thoughts thanks to brain chip
Pioneering new technology has allowed a 69-year-old man with paralysis to fly a virtual drone just by thinking, scientists say.
A new study reveals how a brain implant allowed the man to trigger four different signals by thinking about moving his fingers and thumb.
This type of technology, known as a brain-computer interface (BCI), has previously allowed people with paralysis to control a mouse cursor and write words with a virtual pen.
But until now it had not seen much success when used in complicated tasks where brain signals are used to control several things at once.
The University of Michigan study, published this week, featured a man who had previously been fitted with a BCI made of 192 electrodes.
It was implanted in the part of the brain that normally controls hand motion.
‘There’s a lot of things that we enjoy or do as humans where we use multiple individuated finger movements, so like typing, sewing, playing a musical instrument’, co-author Matthew Willsey told Nature magazine.
‘That’s what this line of work is focused on, how we enable the control of multiple things at the same time.’
An AI model was used to convert the electrical signals fired from the brain’s neurons into digital signals used in the virtual drone-flying program.
The man who participated in the study was not immediately able to use the program.
He first went through a process of learning to imagine moving his fingers in certain ways that created the right kind of signals.
The man got the chance to realise ‘a dream that he thought was lost once he suffered his injury’, Willsey added.
‘He had a passion and a dream for flying. He seemed very empowered and enabled — he would have us take videos and send it to friends.’
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