monkey’s thoughts propel robot

In 2003, Dr. Nicolelis’s team at Duke university proved that monkeys could use their thoughts alone to control a robotic arm for reaching and grasping. Now he's gone and made it control a whole bipedal robot.












Here's a snippet:

"These experiments, Dr. Nicolelis said, are the first steps toward a brain machine interface that might permit paralyzed people to walk by directing devices with their thoughts. Electrodes in the person’s brain would send signals to a device worn on the hip, like a cell phone or pager, that would relay those signals to a pair of braces, a kind of external skeleton, worn on the legs. "

Read the whole thing here http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/science/15robo.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin