Paraplegics see potential miracle in brainwave technology

We’ve seen how simple games that utilize one’s brainwaves work before, and perhaps something in the similar vein might offer paraplegics hope. Of course, as in the most recent Planet of the Apes reboot, monkeys (OK so apes are different, but you get my drift) are being experimented upon – their brainwaves anyways, to control a virtual arm on a computer screen using nothing but their brainwaves. Apart from that, the monkeys were also smart enough to use the arm to sense the texture of different virtual objects.

Could this advancement help speed up the development of wearable exoskeletons? Only time will tell though, but if it were to be an extension of games like the Mindflex Duel, then we can’t help but be excited for quadriplegic patients to regain ‘movement’ in a sense, but to be able to touch again would be wonderful too.

Guess this is a precursor to what Professor X wore in X-Men #25 under the Fatal Attractions storyline, where the exoskeleton was powered by psionic juice to help him regain his walk. I find it interesting that Prof. X was always penciled to have a rather well built body, never mind the fact that he’s wheelchair bound for most of the time. Perhaps there’s some sort of alien tech that he uses to maintain his muscular structure that we don’t know about?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gadgets, Medical
Tags: exoskeleton