[AMP-L] University of Chicago Aims To Develop Prostheses with Sense of Touch

[Wayne Renardson]

via the Los Angeles Times: 

University of Chicago researchers aim to design prostheses that will 
not only be able to move, but would also provide amputees and 
quadriplegics a sense of touch.  

In an underground laboratory at the University of Chicago, 
neuroscientist Sliman Bensmaia peered at a computer attached by wires 
to a rhesus monkey's brain.
 
Brain-controlled limb to take prosthetics a step forward, researchers 
hope. 

A lab technician grazed the animal's finger using a metal probe, and 
the computer screen erupted in red. "That's pretty cool," Bensmaia 
said, grinning. "You can see the brain becoming active just by 
tapping the hand."

Next, instead of physically tapping the animal's hand, the technician 
planned to run a small current of electricity through electrodes in 
the animal's brain to simulate the probe. If the animal looked in a 
certain direction, the scientists would know the "virtual touch" 
worked.

This research is part of a groundbreaking quest to accomplish what 
was once the stuff of science fiction - build a machine that helps 
humans feel.

The rest of the story with photos and video here: 

<http://spedr.com/HgqfJ3Lh>

Wayne R