Study participant Tim Hemmes (right) reaching out to his girlfriend, Katie Schaffer (left), using a brain-controlled prosthetic arm. Also pictured: Research team member Jennifer L. Collinger, Ph.D. Click the photo to download it in high resolution. Photo credit: "UPMC"
Man with Spinal Cord Injury Uses Brain Computer Interface to Move Prosthetic Arm with His Thoughts
New Trial Underway at University of Pittsburgh, UPMC
Seven years after a motorcycle accident damaged his spinal cord and left him paralyzed, 30-year-old Tim Hemmes reached up to touch hands with his girlfriend in a painstaking and tender high-five.
Mr. Hemmes, of Evans City, Pa., is the first to participate in a new trial assessing whether the thoughts of a person with spinal cord injury can be used to control the movement of an external device, such as a computer cursor or a sophisticated prosthetic arm. The project, one of two brain-computer interface (BCI) studies underway at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Rehabilitation Institute, used a grid of electrodes placed on the surface of the brain to control the arm.
It was a unique robotic arm and hand, designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, that Mr. Hemmes willed to extend first toward the palm of a researcher on the team and a few minutes later, to his girlfriend’s hand.
“I put my heart and soul into everything they asked me to do,” he said immediately after his achievement. “I got to reach out and touch somebody for the first time in seven years.”
“Seeing Tim reach out with a mechanical arm to touch his girlfriend was an unexpected and poignant bonus for all of us who are involved with this exciting project,” said co-principal investigator Michael Boninger, M.D., director of the UPMC Rehabilitation Institute.
“This first round of testing reinforces the great potential BCI technology holds for not only helping spinal cord-injured patients become more independent, but also enhancing their physical and emotional connections with their friends and family,” added Dr. Boninger, who also is professor and chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Pitt’s School of Medicine. “It further motivates us to make this technology useful and available to those who need it.”
Read the full press release here.