Cyborg-Technology

The next step towards true Cyborgs?

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The next step towards true Cyborgs?

 

 

On the 14th of March 2002 a one hundred electrode array was surgically implanted into the median nerve fibres of the left arm of Professor Kevin Warwick. The operation was carried out at Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, by a medical team headed by the neurosurgeons Amjad Shad and Peter Teddy. The procedure, which took a little over two hours, involved inserting a guiding tube into a two inch incision made below the elbow joint, inserting the microelectrode array into this tube and firing it into the median
nerve fibres above the wrist.




The development of the implant technology was carried out by a team of researchers headed by Dr Mark Gasson, who used it to perform a number of experiments. Most notably Professor Warwick was able to control an electric wheelchair and an intelligent artificial hand, developed by Dr Peter Kyberd, using the neural interface. In addition to being able to measure the nerve signals transmitted along the nerve fibres in Professor Wariwck’s left arm, the implant was also able to create artificial sensation by stimluating via individual electrodes within the array. This bi-directional functionality was demonstrated with the aid of Kevin’s wife Irena and a second, less complex implant connecting to her nervous system.

Another important aspect of the work undertaken as part of this project was to monitor the effects of the implant on Professor Warwick’s hand functions. This was carried out using the Southampton Hand Assessment Procedure (SHAP) test. By testing hand functionality during the course of the project the difference between the performance indicators before, during and after the implant was present in Kevin’s arm can be used to give a measure of the risks associated with this and future cyborg experiments.


How far will cyborg technology really go?

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In the sci-fi realm, cyborgs are the results of a military experiment or products of a society where being only human just isn’t enough. In the real world, the story of the first cyborgs is rather grim. The vast majority aren’t people trying to enhance themselves but victims of an accident or a stroke, no longer able to communicate or do anything on their own. To help them, researchers developed a package of software and hardware called BrainGate that allows a tiny brain implant to control computers by thought, restoring a sense of mobility to those who badly need it.

To talk, move wheelchairs, or use another tool able to decode their commands, patients think of the motions they want to do and their implants convert the thought into a digital signal. Over time, the patients get used to their new abilities, manipulating their devices like new appendages. But since plugging a computer chip into a brain is pretty risky, it was limited to a small patient group for testing and observation. So far, the tests are going so well that a new wave of BrainGate devices has been greenlit for a clinical study and if this study goes as expected, the technology may well be on its way to a hospital near you.

For the next ten years or so, the technology is very likely to remain a treatment. If the devices will be confirmed as safe and reliable by larger studies and real world data, they might quickly find their way into the military. But the big question is whether normal, healthy people would want to undergo brain surgery to work with all their household electronics on a whim. Let’s be clear that this procedure is very invasive and the more electronics we’ll want to adopt into our bodies, the more invasive and risky the required surgeries will have to be. To be a cyborg similar to those described in sci-fi movies and novels would be very extensive and extreme process, a process that would probably deter anyone who doesn’t have to endure it for very good reasons. As nifty as it’d be to turn the TV on with a glance, I would have to question the value of this ability considering what had to be done to make it happen.

That said, when doctors can use new, less invasive techniques to merge us with machines and the required procedures will be safer and cheaper, we might see the real dawn of the cyborgs. Until then, it seems that the technology is likely to be limited to extreme medical cases and small scale military experiments.