Paralyzed California man re-learns to walk via computer

(Reuters) — For paraplegic Adam Fritz, the thrill of the computer-assisted first steps he took five years after being paralyzed in a motorcycle crash came only after he was unhooked from the system that enabled him to walk briefly in a bioengineering lab. During the experiment itself, Fritz recounted, he had to keep his mind focused entirely on placing one foot in front of the other as his brain waves were translated by a computer algorithm into impulses that bypassed his severed spinal cord and activated his legs. “If you break your concentration, it wouldn’t work anymore,” he told Reuters shortly after scientists from the University of California, Irvine, reported the feat in the British open-access Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation. “Once I finished, I had that ‘Oh my God, this thing worked,’ kind of a moment,” the 28-year-old religious studies graduate said. “It was very exhilarating.” The “proof-of-concept” study published late Wednesday documented how brain-to-computer technology, which converts thoughts to body motion, enabled Fritz to become the first person paralyzed from the waist down by spinal cord injury to walk without the use of robotics. As captured in a YouTube video of that pioneering moment last October, it was hardly a casual stroll. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBAeR-Z0EHg) Fritz is seen slowly shuffling with painstaking effort across the floor of UC Irvine’s iMove Lab. Hi...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Tags: Research & Development Source Type: news