Part of the "Walk Again Project", an international
collaboration of more than 100 scientists, eight Brazilian patients who are
paralysed from the waist down have been training for months to use the
exoskeleton, researchers said.
"The system works by recording electrical activity in
the patient's brain, recognising his or her intention - such as to take a step
or kick a ball - and translating that to action," explained professor
Miguel Nicolelis of US-based Duke university and the International Institute
for Neurosciences of Natal, Brazil. The system also gives the patient tactile
feedback using sensitive artificial skin.
A sense of touch would be essential for the patient's
emotional comfort as well as control over the exoskeleton. "Thus the
challenge was to give a paralysed person, together with the ability to walk,
the feeling of touching the ground," added Gordon Cheng, head of the
Institute for Cognitive Systems at the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM),
Germany.
Read More at one India
