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Though paralyzed, he walks virtually
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 05 June 2008, 01:19 IST
Tokyo: The virtual world has helped a paralyzed man see himself walking. The 41-year-old patient, who has suffered paralysis for more than 30 years, walked by using brain waves driven by his imagination to manipulate a virtual Internet character, Japanese researchers said Monday, calling it a world first such incidence.
Apart from taking a walk, the patient's character talked with another virtual person on the popular Second Life website. The patient, in reality cannot even make slight move, as he can barely bend his fingers due to a progressive muscle disease and thus cannot use a mouse or keyboard in the traditional way.
In the experiment, he wore headgear with three electrodes monitoring brain waves related to his hands and legs, helping the computer to capture all the brain waves as he imagined that his character was walking to make the virtual walk possible.
He was then able to have a conversation with the other character using an attached microphone, said the researchers at Japan's Keio University.
"Researchers are now exploring a system that would let patients create text messages by mentally selecting certain letters," said Junichi Ushiba, Associate Professor at the Biosciences and Informatics Department of Keio Universty's Faculty of Science and Technology. "In the near future, they would be able to stroll through Second Life shopping malls with their brain waves and click to make a purchase," Ushiba added.
