The BBC recently reported on developments in prosthetic hand technology which include the addition of sensory feedback via a direct nerve interface. The research was part of the SMARTHAND project and was led by a team at Lund University, Sweden. According to CORDIS:

What is unique about the sophisticated prototype artificial hand developed by the SMARTHAND partners is that not only does it replicate the movements of a real hand, but it also gives the user sensations of touch and feeling. The researchers said the hand has 4 electric motors and 40 sensors that are activated when pressed against an object. These sensors stimulate the arm’s nerves to activate a part in the brain that enables patients to feel the objects. [CORDIS News]

The research strategy attempting to deepen the feedback and control may involve the use of nanotechnology to further miniaturise components of the interface between the hand and arm:

The hurdle they need to cross is to make the cables and electric motors smaller. Nanotechnology could help the team iron out any problems. Specifically, they would implant a tiny processing unit, a power source and a trans-skin communication method into the user of the hand to optimise functionality. [CORDIS News]

The story ran with the emphasis on the inclusion of sensory feedback. It often seems as though people are much more accepting of the mechanical side of prosthetic technologies than the sensory side (despite the availablility of cochleal implants). It seems to be a violation of intuition that adding sensory capacity might be the easy part of the problem - give a brain a signal and some feedback and it’ll detect patterns and correlate them with events in the world. It’s the giving of the signal and feedback that presents the greatest difficulties. It will be fascinating to watch for changes in what counts as intuitive as the availability of technologically mediated raw experience increases.

Sources:

• New robotic hand ‘can feel’ [BBC News: 18 October 2009]
• Innovation makes artificial hand seem real [CORDIS News: 9 October 2009]

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MIT’s Technology Review reports on the development of a technique designed to prevent the damage caused by the metals in current neural interfaces, where ‘insertion of the rigid metal electrode into soft tissue triggers a cascade of inflammatory signals, damaging or killing neurons and triggering a scar to form around the metal’ [Technology Review].

“We hope to come up with a way to communicate across the scar layer and send information to and from the device in a way that is as friendly as possible,” says David Martin, a materials scientists at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, who is leading the research into the polymer coatings.

Martin and his collaborators coat the electrodes with an electrically conductive polymer originally developed for electronic devices, such as organic LEDs and photovoltaics for solar cells. The polymer coating increases the surface area of the metal-biological interface, which in turn boosts performance of the electrode.

Along with former lab members, Martin founded a company, Massachusetts-based Biotectix, to commercialize the materials developed in his lab. He says that he is already in talks with a cochlear-implant technology company about using his lab’s materials in their devices. [Technology Review]

[Technology Review via Technovelgy]

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BBC News have reported on the imminent commercial release of Emotiv’s neural interface. According to the article,

The Epoc technology can be used to give authentic facial expressions to avatars of gamers in virtual worlds. For example, if the player smiles, winks, grimaces the headset can detect the expression and translate it to the avatar in game. [BBC News]

The article also reported that,

Emotiv is working with IBM to develop the technology for uses in “strategic enterprise business markets and virtual worlds”

Paul Ledak, vice president, IBM Digital Convergence said brain computer interfaces, like the Epoc headset were an important component of the future 3D Internet and the future of virtual communication. [BBC News]

…

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Scientists at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique have published a paper in Nature Neuroscience describing their success in erasing the memories of traumatic incidents in rats without damaging other associated memories. The research is intended to help develop therapeutic regimes for Post Traumatic Stress Disorders. Cordis reports that,

…researchers trained rats to be frightened of two distinct sounds by playing the sounds and then sending an electric shock to their paws. The next day, half the rats received a drug which is known to cause amnesia for events recalled from memory, and the researchers played one of the sounds again.

On the following day, the researchers again played both sounds to all the rats. They found that the animals who had not received the drug were still frightened by both sounds. However, the rats which had received the drug were no longer disturbed by the sound they had heard while drugged. By playing one note and prompting the recall of the electric shock memory while under the influence of the drug, the traumatic memory was erased. However, the memory of the shock associated with the other note remained intact. [Cordis]

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New Scientist has reported that researchers from the Brown University Research Foundation have filed a patent application describing a method for decoding and intepreting activity in the motor cortex. The patent application is available online. The research underlying the patent was published in Nature in July 2006. John Donoghue’s Web site also links to a preprint chapter, “Design Principles of a neuromotor Prosthetic Device” by Donoghue and Serruya.

Hochberg, L.R., Serruya, M.D., Friehs, G.M., Mukand, J.A., Saleh, M., Caplan, A.H., Branner, A., Chen, D., Penn, R.D., Donoghue, J.P. (2006) “Neuronal ensemble control of prosthetic devices by a human with tetraplegia”. Nature 442, pp164-171. doi:10.1038/nature04970

Aaron, R.K., Herr, H.M., Ciombor, D.McK., Hochberg, L.R., Donoghue, J.P., Briant, C.L., Morgan, J.R., Ehrlich, M.G. (2006) “Horizons in Prosthesis Development for the Restoration of Limb Function”. J Am Acad Orthop Surg 14(10) S198-204

[Via New Scientist]

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Li Gong of the Ohio State University School of Communication has published research concluding that virtual sales people are more effective when they smile:

…the happy agent achieved greater consumption intent, more positive product evaluation, more positive attitudes towards the agent (in terms of liking, trustworthiness, and competence) and the Web-site interface, and more positive user experience than the sad agent. [Gong 2007:188]

Gong, L. (2007)”Is happy better than sad even if they are both non-adaptive? Effects of emotional expressions of talking-head interface agents”. International Journal of Human-Computer Interactions 65(3) pp183-191 doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2006.09.005 [Accessed via ScienceDirect]

[via Science Daily]

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The neurophilosopher has reported on the release of the emotiv neural interface to software developers and the commercial release of the gtec neural interface.

[Update: Mar 21. Legit Reviews have an article on OCZ Technology’s Neural Impulse Actuator which was demonstrated at CeBIT (from Gizmodo via Core77 Design Blog)]

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Researchers at the University of Washington Neural Systems Group have prototyped a non-invasive neural interface for controlling the actions of a humanoid robot.

The humanoid robot takes care of the lower-level motor control while the operator directs action using the interface.

The Neural Systems Group web pages have more images and videos of the system in operation.

[Via Engadget]

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Hitachi have demonstrated a brain-machine interface allowing users to perform simple switching. “In the experiments, test subjects were able to activate the power switch of a model train by performing mental arithmetic and reciting items from memory.” [source: Pink Tentacle]

The technology uses optical topography to map changes in blood flow in the brain to voltage changes in control circuits. [original source: Seihin World] Hitachi plans to have commercial versions available in five years.

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A collaboration between the DiCarlo Lab and the Center for Biological & Computational Learning has closed on the real-time decoding of primate vision.

The results are summarised in:

Chou P. Hung, Gabriel Kreiman, Tomaso Poggio, and James J. DiCarlo (2005) “Fast Readout of Object Identity from Macaque Inferior Temporal Cortex”, Science 4 November 2005 310: 863-866 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1117593] (in Reports)

the full text of which can be downloaded from the publications page of the DiCarlo lab.

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