Juliano Pinto, a 29-year-old Brazilian man who is unable to move from the waist down, performed the symbolic kick-off for the 2014 World Cup at the Corinthians Arena in Sao Paulo on June 12 using a mind-controlled robotic exoskeleton. For people in China who have similar disabilities, this amazing technology is not beyond reach.

 

Tianjin University and Tianjin People's Hospital have jointly released the research results of an artificial neural network (ANN) rehabilitating machine named Deity One. Compared with the mind-controlled robotic exoskeleton system, the mind-controlled ANN further synchronises cerebral cortex and muscle activity, the report said. 

 

Ming Dong, a professor at Tianjin University's College of Precision Instrument and Opto-Electronics Engineering and leader of the project, told the paper that damage to the central nervous system or its surrounding nerves blocks the brain from issuing correct signals or from transmitting the signals. The ANN system has thus been developed to help decode brain signals, remould the central nervous system and construct an artificial nervous system. 

 

The professor said the process is extremely complex and the ANN system first picks up the brain signals, passes them to the brain-machine platform, decodes them, and electronically stimulates the artificial nerves of the paralyzed muscles so that the muscle will move in accordance with the brain signal. 

 

The ANN rehabilitating machine includes six main parts — a brain signal device, a device to classify activity, another to identify activity, as well as a device for coding and decoding activity, a device for information, and a device for stimulation, the paper said. The patient wears the brain signal device on their head, while medical staff attach to other areas of the body, which means there is no need to implant a chip in the brain or spine. 

 

Ming said that while mind-controlled robotic exoskeletons involve the machine moving, the Deity One is muscle-moving by neural stimulation, in other words, a recovery of the functions of the autonomic nervous system. He added that a patient using the Deity One will not only be able to move but will also recover faster. 

 

Du Jingang, director of the rehabilitation division at Tianjin People's Hospital, said the machine is a major breakthrough in the medicine of rehabilitation and the first of its kind. 

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