09-05-2011, 09:27 AM
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INTRODUCTION
So what is cyber ware you ask? Consider a computer interface where there is no need to type, no eyestrain or back-strain of sitting at a computer all day. You simply lie down, plug in your data-jack and think your computer's actions. Techno-junkie pipe dream? Perhaps, but there is a growing number of people who are trying to pull this new technology out of science fiction and into reality.
Most dictionaries don't contain a definition for cyber ware. This is unsurprising in this relatively new and unknown field. In science fiction circles, however, it is commonly known to mean the hardware or machine parts implanted in the human body and acting as an interface between our central nervous system and the computers or machinery connected to it. More formally: Cyberware is technology that attempts to create a working interface between machines/computers and the human nervous system, including (but not limited to) the brain
Examples of potential cyberware cover a wide range, but current research tends to approach the field from one of two different angles: Interfaces or Prosthetics.
INTERFACES (HEADWARE)
The first variety attempts to connect directly with the brain. The data-jack is probably the best-known, having heavily featured in works of fiction (even in mainstream productions such as Johnny Mnemonic, the cartoon Exosquad, and The Matrix). Unfortunately, it is currently the most difficult object to implement, but it is also the most important in terms of interfacing directly with the mind. In science fiction the data-jack is the envisioned I/O port for the brain. Its job is to translate thoughts into something meaningful to a computer, and to translate something from a computer into meaningful thoughts for humans. Once perfected, it would allow direct communication between computers and the human mind.
Large university laboratories conduct most of the experiments done in the area of direct neural interfaces. For ethical reasons, the tests are usually performed on animals or slices of brain tissue from donor brains. The mainstream research currently focuses on electrical impulse monitoring, recording and translating the many different electrical signals that the brain transmits. A number of companies are working on what is essentially a "hands-free" mouse or keyboard [Lusted, 1996]. This technology uses these brain signals to control computer functions. These interfaces are sometimes called Brain-Machine Interfaces(BMI).
The more intense research, concerning full in-brain interfaces, is being studied, but is in its infancy. Few can afford the huge cost of such enterprises, and those who can, find the work slow-going and very far from the ultimate goals. Current research has reached the level where limited control over a computer is possible using thought commands alone. Most recently, after being implanted with a Massachusetts-based firm Cyberkinetics chip called BrainGate, a quadriplegic man was able to compose and check email.
BMI
A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain–machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between a brain and an external device. BCIs are often aimed at assisting, augmenting or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions.
The field of BCI research and development has since focused primarily on neuroprosthetics applications that aim at restoring damaged hearing, sight and movement. Thanks to the remarkable cortical plasticity of the brain, signals from implanted prostheses can, after adaptation, be handled by the brain like natural sensor or effector channels. Following years of animal experimentation, the first neuroprosthetic devices implanted in humans appeared in the mid-nineties.
BRAIN GATE
BrainGate is a brain implant system developed by the bio-tech company Cyberkinetics in 2008 in conjunction with the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University. The device was designed to help those who have lost control of their limbs, or other bodily functions, such as patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or spinal cord injury. The computer chip, which is implanted into the brain, monitors brain activity in the patient and converts the intention of the user into computer commands.
Currently the chip uses 96 hair-thin electrodes that sense the electro-magnetic signature of neurons firing in specific areas of the brain, for example, the area that controls arm movement. The activity is translated into electrically charged signals and are then sent and decoded using a program, which can move a robotic arm, a computer cursor, or even a wheelchair. According to the Cyberkinetics' website, three patients have been implanted with the BrainGate system. The company has confirmed that one patient (Matt Nagle) has a spinal cord injury, whilst another has advanced ALS.
In addition to real-time analysis of neuron patterns to relay movement, the Braingate array is also capable of recording electrical data for later analysis. A potential use of this feature would be for a neurologist to study seizure patterns in a patient with epilepsy.
In 2009, a monkey was using a device very similar to BrainGate to control a robotic arm.
Fig: Diagram of the BCI developed by Miguel Nicolelis and colleagues for use on Rhesus monkeys
Fig: Dummy unit illustrating the design of a BrainGate interface
PROSTHETICS (BODYWARE)
The second variety of cyberware consists of a more modern form of the rather old field of prosthetics. Modern prostheses attempt to deliver a natural functionality and appearance. In the sub-field where prosthetics and cyberware cross over, experiments have been done where microprocessors, capable of controlling the movements of an artificial limb, are attached to the severed nerve-endings of the patient. The patient is then taught how to operate the prosthetic, trying to learn how to move it as though it were a natural limb [Lusted, 1996].
Prosthetics are specifically not orthotics, although given certain circumstances a prosthetic might end up performing some or all of the same functionary benefits as an orthotic. Prostheses (or "A" prosthesis) are technically the complete finished item. For instance, a C-Leg KNEE alone is NOT a prosthesis, but only a prosthetic PART. The complete prosthesis would consist of the stump attachment system - usually a "socket", and all the attachment hardware parts all the way down to and including the foot. Keep this in mind as often nomenclature is interchanged.
Advancements in the processors used in myoelectric arms has allowed for artificial limbs to make gains in fine tuned control of the prosthetic. The Boston Digital Arm is a recent artificial limb that has taken advantage of these more advanced processors. The arm allows movement in five axes and allows the arm to be programmed for a more customized feel.[21] Raymond Edwards, Limbless Association Acting CEO, was the first amputee to be fitted with the i-LIMB by the National Health Service in the UK.[22] The hand, manufactured by "Touch Bionics"[23] of Scotland (a Livingston company), went on sale on 18 July 2007 in Britain.[24] It was named alongside the Super Hadron Collider in Time magazine's top fifty innovations.[25] Another robotic hand is the RSLSteeper bebionic [26]
Another neural prosthetic is Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Proto 1. Besides the Proto 1, the university also finished the Proto 2 in 2010.
Robotic legs exist too: the Argo Medical Technologies ReWalk is an example or a recent robotic leg, targeted to replace the wheelchair. It is marketed as a "robotic pants"
Targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) is a technique in which motor nerves which previously controlled muscles on an amputated limb are surgically rerouted such that they reinnervate a small region of a large, intact muscle, such as the pectoralis major. As a result, when a patient thinks about moving the thumb of his missing hand, a small area of muscle on his chest will contract instead. By placing sensors over the reinervated muscle, these contractions can be made to control movement of an appropriate part of the robotic prosthesis.
An emerging variant of this technique is called targeted sensory reinnervation (TSR). This procedure is similar to TMR, except that sensory nerves are surgically rerouted to skin on the chest, rather than motor nerves rerouted to muscle. The patient then feels any sensory stimulus on that area of the chest, such as pressure or temperature, as if it were occurring on the area of the amputated limb which the nerve originally innervated. In the future, artificial limbs could be built with sensors on fingertips or other important areas. When a stimulus, such as pressure or temperature, activated these sensors, an electrical signal would be sent to an actuator, which would produce a similar stimulus on the "rewired" area of chest skin. The user would then feel that stimulus as if it were occurring on an appropriate part of the artificial limb.
Recently, robotic limbs have improved in their ability to take signals from the human brain and translate those signals into motion in the artificial limb. DARPA, the Pentagon’s research division, is working to make even more advancements in this area. Their desire is to create an artificial limb that ties directly into the nervous system.[31]
Fig: Myoelectric prosthetic arm of a United States Marine
MYOELECTRIC
A myoelectric prosthesis uses electromyography signals or potentials from voluntarily contracted muscles within a person's residual limb on the surface of the skin to control the movements of the prosthesis, such as elbow flexion/extension, wrist supination/pronation (rotation) or hand opening/closing of the fingers. A prosthesis of this type utilizes the residual neuro-muscular system of the human body to control the functions of an electric powered prosthetic hand, wrist or elbow. This is as opposed to an electric switch prosthesis, which requires straps and/or cables actuated by body movements to actuate or operate switches that control the movements of a prosthesis or one that is totally mechanical. It is not clear whether those few prostheses that provide feedback signals to those muscles are also myoelectric in nature. It has a self suspending socket with pick up electrodes placed over flexors and extensors for the movement of flexion and extension respectively.
The first commercial myoelectric arm was developed in 1964 by the Central Prosthetic Research Institute of the USSR, and distributed by the Hangar Limb Factory of the UK
INTRODUCTION
So what is cyber ware you ask? Consider a computer interface where there is no need to type, no eyestrain or back-strain of sitting at a computer all day. You simply lie down, plug in your data-jack and think your computer's actions. Techno-junkie pipe dream? Perhaps, but there is a growing number of people who are trying to pull this new technology out of science fiction and into reality.
Most dictionaries don't contain a definition for cyber ware. This is unsurprising in this relatively new and unknown field. In science fiction circles, however, it is commonly known to mean the hardware or machine parts implanted in the human body and acting as an interface between our central nervous system and the computers or machinery connected to it. More formally: Cyberware is technology that attempts to create a working interface between machines/computers and the human nervous system, including (but not limited to) the brain
Examples of potential cyberware cover a wide range, but current research tends to approach the field from one of two different angles: Interfaces or Prosthetics.
INTERFACES (HEADWARE)
The first variety attempts to connect directly with the brain. The data-jack is probably the best-known, having heavily featured in works of fiction (even in mainstream productions such as Johnny Mnemonic, the cartoon Exosquad, and The Matrix). Unfortunately, it is currently the most difficult object to implement, but it is also the most important in terms of interfacing directly with the mind. In science fiction the data-jack is the envisioned I/O port for the brain. Its job is to translate thoughts into something meaningful to a computer, and to translate something from a computer into meaningful thoughts for humans. Once perfected, it would allow direct communication between computers and the human mind.
Large university laboratories conduct most of the experiments done in the area of direct neural interfaces. For ethical reasons, the tests are usually performed on animals or slices of brain tissue from donor brains. The mainstream research currently focuses on electrical impulse monitoring, recording and translating the many different electrical signals that the brain transmits. A number of companies are working on what is essentially a "hands-free" mouse or keyboard [Lusted, 1996]. This technology uses these brain signals to control computer functions. These interfaces are sometimes called Brain-Machine Interfaces(BMI).
The more intense research, concerning full in-brain interfaces, is being studied, but is in its infancy. Few can afford the huge cost of such enterprises, and those who can, find the work slow-going and very far from the ultimate goals. Current research has reached the level where limited control over a computer is possible using thought commands alone. Most recently, after being implanted with a Massachusetts-based firm Cyberkinetics chip called BrainGate, a quadriplegic man was able to compose and check email.
BMI
A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain–machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between a brain and an external device. BCIs are often aimed at assisting, augmenting or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions.
The field of BCI research and development has since focused primarily on neuroprosthetics applications that aim at restoring damaged hearing, sight and movement. Thanks to the remarkable cortical plasticity of the brain, signals from implanted prostheses can, after adaptation, be handled by the brain like natural sensor or effector channels. Following years of animal experimentation, the first neuroprosthetic devices implanted in humans appeared in the mid-nineties.
BRAIN GATE
BrainGate is a brain implant system developed by the bio-tech company Cyberkinetics in 2008 in conjunction with the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University. The device was designed to help those who have lost control of their limbs, or other bodily functions, such as patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or spinal cord injury. The computer chip, which is implanted into the brain, monitors brain activity in the patient and converts the intention of the user into computer commands.
Currently the chip uses 96 hair-thin electrodes that sense the electro-magnetic signature of neurons firing in specific areas of the brain, for example, the area that controls arm movement. The activity is translated into electrically charged signals and are then sent and decoded using a program, which can move a robotic arm, a computer cursor, or even a wheelchair. According to the Cyberkinetics' website, three patients have been implanted with the BrainGate system. The company has confirmed that one patient (Matt Nagle) has a spinal cord injury, whilst another has advanced ALS.
In addition to real-time analysis of neuron patterns to relay movement, the Braingate array is also capable of recording electrical data for later analysis. A potential use of this feature would be for a neurologist to study seizure patterns in a patient with epilepsy.
In 2009, a monkey was using a device very similar to BrainGate to control a robotic arm.
Fig: Diagram of the BCI developed by Miguel Nicolelis and colleagues for use on Rhesus monkeys
Fig: Dummy unit illustrating the design of a BrainGate interface
PROSTHETICS (BODYWARE)
The second variety of cyberware consists of a more modern form of the rather old field of prosthetics. Modern prostheses attempt to deliver a natural functionality and appearance. In the sub-field where prosthetics and cyberware cross over, experiments have been done where microprocessors, capable of controlling the movements of an artificial limb, are attached to the severed nerve-endings of the patient. The patient is then taught how to operate the prosthetic, trying to learn how to move it as though it were a natural limb [Lusted, 1996].
Prosthetics are specifically not orthotics, although given certain circumstances a prosthetic might end up performing some or all of the same functionary benefits as an orthotic. Prostheses (or "A" prosthesis) are technically the complete finished item. For instance, a C-Leg KNEE alone is NOT a prosthesis, but only a prosthetic PART. The complete prosthesis would consist of the stump attachment system - usually a "socket", and all the attachment hardware parts all the way down to and including the foot. Keep this in mind as often nomenclature is interchanged.
Advancements in the processors used in myoelectric arms has allowed for artificial limbs to make gains in fine tuned control of the prosthetic. The Boston Digital Arm is a recent artificial limb that has taken advantage of these more advanced processors. The arm allows movement in five axes and allows the arm to be programmed for a more customized feel.[21] Raymond Edwards, Limbless Association Acting CEO, was the first amputee to be fitted with the i-LIMB by the National Health Service in the UK.[22] The hand, manufactured by "Touch Bionics"[23] of Scotland (a Livingston company), went on sale on 18 July 2007 in Britain.[24] It was named alongside the Super Hadron Collider in Time magazine's top fifty innovations.[25] Another robotic hand is the RSLSteeper bebionic [26]
Another neural prosthetic is Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Proto 1. Besides the Proto 1, the university also finished the Proto 2 in 2010.
Robotic legs exist too: the Argo Medical Technologies ReWalk is an example or a recent robotic leg, targeted to replace the wheelchair. It is marketed as a "robotic pants"
Targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) is a technique in which motor nerves which previously controlled muscles on an amputated limb are surgically rerouted such that they reinnervate a small region of a large, intact muscle, such as the pectoralis major. As a result, when a patient thinks about moving the thumb of his missing hand, a small area of muscle on his chest will contract instead. By placing sensors over the reinervated muscle, these contractions can be made to control movement of an appropriate part of the robotic prosthesis.
An emerging variant of this technique is called targeted sensory reinnervation (TSR). This procedure is similar to TMR, except that sensory nerves are surgically rerouted to skin on the chest, rather than motor nerves rerouted to muscle. The patient then feels any sensory stimulus on that area of the chest, such as pressure or temperature, as if it were occurring on the area of the amputated limb which the nerve originally innervated. In the future, artificial limbs could be built with sensors on fingertips or other important areas. When a stimulus, such as pressure or temperature, activated these sensors, an electrical signal would be sent to an actuator, which would produce a similar stimulus on the "rewired" area of chest skin. The user would then feel that stimulus as if it were occurring on an appropriate part of the artificial limb.
Recently, robotic limbs have improved in their ability to take signals from the human brain and translate those signals into motion in the artificial limb. DARPA, the Pentagon’s research division, is working to make even more advancements in this area. Their desire is to create an artificial limb that ties directly into the nervous system.[31]
Fig: Myoelectric prosthetic arm of a United States Marine
MYOELECTRIC
A myoelectric prosthesis uses electromyography signals or potentials from voluntarily contracted muscles within a person's residual limb on the surface of the skin to control the movements of the prosthesis, such as elbow flexion/extension, wrist supination/pronation (rotation) or hand opening/closing of the fingers. A prosthesis of this type utilizes the residual neuro-muscular system of the human body to control the functions of an electric powered prosthetic hand, wrist or elbow. This is as opposed to an electric switch prosthesis, which requires straps and/or cables actuated by body movements to actuate or operate switches that control the movements of a prosthesis or one that is totally mechanical. It is not clear whether those few prostheses that provide feedback signals to those muscles are also myoelectric in nature. It has a self suspending socket with pick up electrodes placed over flexors and extensors for the movement of flexion and extension respectively.
The first commercial myoelectric arm was developed in 1964 by the Central Prosthetic Research Institute of the USSR, and distributed by the Hangar Limb Factory of the UK