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Paralyzed man pilots a virtual drone – by thinking of moving his fingers | Brain-computer interfaces may allow paralyzed people to perform basic actions such as eating and typing.
Brain-computer interfaces may allow paralyzed people to perform basic actions such as eating and typing, but … well, there's more to life than eating and typing. That's where an unprecedented new BCI comes in, as it has allowed a man to fly a virtual drone just by thinking of moving his fingers.
While there are different types of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) which work in different fashions, many of them detect patterns of electrical activity in the brain that correspond to thoughts of moving certain body parts. Over a total of nine two- to five-hour training sessions, the test subject became adept at piloting the drone through the obstacle course, even combining multiple finger commands to perform two movements at the same time (i.e: flying up while turning right, etc). "People tend to focus on restoration of the sorts of functions that are basic necessities – eating, dressing, mobility – and those are all important," says Stanford's Prof. Jaimie Henderson, co-author of a paper on the study "But oftentimes, other equally important aspects of life get short shrift, like recreation or connection with peers.
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