The Future of Prosthetics Could Be This Brain-Controlled Bionic Leg (Wired, 15/10/2013)
"About a year ago, Zac Vawter climbed all 103 flights of stairs of the Willis Tower in Chicago. On its own, this accomplishment would be pretty unremarkable, but Vawter, who lost his leg four years ago during a motorcycle accident, happened climb more than 2,000 steps while wearing a prosthetic leg. Even crazier yet? Vawter could control this prosthetic leg with his mind, sending instructions from his brain, down through nerves that would communicate with his mechanical limb."
Fonctionne par apprentissage :
So essentially, the neural impulses that are sent from the brain–the ones telling the body to stand, walk or change positions–communicate with the prosthetic leg through sensors, and a computer then translates those instructions into actions. Over time, an algorithm learns the patterns of a user’s intended actions and can begin to react to their thoughts, thus making a mechanical limb function intuitively or a least lot more like a normal human leg.
Un poids divisé par 30 en 10 ans (une pointe d'exagération peut-être ?) :
“All of the innovation will come to the electronics,” says Reinecke, adding that around 10 years ago the sensors and materials would have made a leg like this around 300 pounds. Today, thanks to lightweight materials like graphite and micro-technologies, the leg is around 10.2 pounds
