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Frontiers

Factual: Science & Nature

Programme exploring new ideas in science and meeting the researchers responsible

Programme exploring new ideas in science and meeting the scientists and researchers responsible for them, as well as hearing from their critics

Frontiers: Brain Machine Interfaces

Brain Machine Interfaces

28/11/2012

BBC Radio 4 - Frontiers, Brain Machine Interfaces

Geoff Watts looks into how scientists can use the mind to control artificial limbs.

Can reading the mind allow thought control to move artificial limbs? Geoff Watts explores the brain-machine interface.

Can reading the mind allow us to use thought control to move artificial limbs? 

Neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis, is one of the world's leading researchers into using the mind to control machines. One of his aims is to build a suit that a quadriplegic person can wear and control so that he or she can kick a football at the opening of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. His lab is working on ways of providing a sense of touch to these limbs so that the prosthetics feel more like a part of a person's body and less like an artificial appendage. 
Geoff Watts visits Nicolelis' laboratory to see just how near we are to achieving his aim on the football pitch.

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