electrodes

Smart skivvies shock patients to prevent bedsores

A little shock now and again can be good for you, if you happen to be a bedridden patient at risk of developing bedsores and the shock is delivered through your underwear at very specific intervals.

So says a team of doctors at the University of Calgary, who recently tested their "Smart-e-Pants" on 37 patients with spinal cord injuries -- some of the most challenging patients because they can neither move nor feel when bedsores are forming.

The researchers found that by placing two pads of electrodes on each, er, cheek, and stimulating each patient's backside for … Read more

Crave 48: The hug that hugs you back (podcast)

Everybody needs a hug sometimes, even if it's from a computer. This week, Eric and Donald ruminate on the future of self-hugging, the dangers of hacking your hand, sweet retirement rides, Wookiee-worthy beanbags, and cubed food.

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Patient 'S3' hits 1,000-day mark with brain implant

A woman known as Patient S3, who is paralyzed from her neck down and cannot speak, has just reached the 1,000-day anniversary with a brain-computer interface called BrainGate, and researchers are reporting in the Journal of Neural Engineering that the device is still effective.

"This proof of concept--that after 1,000 days a woman who has no functional use of her limbs and is unable to speak can reliably control a cursor on a computer screen using only the intended movement of her hand--is an important step for the field," said Leigh Hochberg, associate professor of engineering … Read more

Study to test human ability to control robotics with the mind

Researchers are ready to advance their tests of a novel brain-computer interface (BCI) from animals to human subjects, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency just granted them more than $6 million over the next three years to get those human clinical trials under way.

Ongoing research out of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and the University of Pittsburgh has already demonstrated that the team's tiny 10x10 array of electrodes implanted on the surface of a monkey's brain can process activity from individual neurons to guide a robotic arm through such simple tasks as turning doorknobs and … Read more