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Mind-Controlled Quadcopter Demonstrates Interface to Assist Disabled People

A University of Minnesota research team, led by biomedical engineer Bin He, created a brain-computer interface with the goal of helping people with disabilities, such as paralysis, regain the ability to do everyday tasks. With support from the National Science Foundation, the research team is testing out their system using a quadcopter, and controlling it with someone's thoughts. For the experiments, the team uses both an actual flying quadcopter and a virtual one. In both experiments, the interface is non-invasive, so there are no implants. Participants wear an electro-encephalography (EEG) cap with 64 electrodes. When the participant thinks about a specific movement, neurons in his or her brain's motor cortex produce tiny electric signals, which are sent to a computer. The computer processes the signals and sends directions through a Wi-Fi system to direct the quadcopter.

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    Transcript

    00:00:00 ♫MUSIC♫ MILES O'BRIEN: A Quadcopter flies through a balloon ring - cool, but what's the big deal? Well, look mom, no hands! There's no mouse or joystick here. It's all the power of thoughts! BIN HE: Then, the signal coming from his brain is being picked up by these sensors. And, then decoded, and sent through a Wi-Fi system to control this flying Quadcopter. MILES O'BRIEN: With support from the National Science Foundation, Biomedical Engineer Bin He and his team at the

    00:00:43 University of Minnesota created this brain-computer interface, to help people with disabilities re-gain the ability to do everyday tasks. BIN HE: The goal is eventually to make this technology to really help people, say on the wheelchair, with a variety of disabilities. MILES O'BRIEN: Professor He is still testing out the system with college students, before maneuvering the Quadcopter for real, they train for 10 to 20 hours, using a virtual aircraft flying over a computer- generated campus.

    00:01:15 KAITLIN CASSADY: We insert two different kinds of conductive gel that help us conduct a signal from his brain. MILES O'BRIEN: The interface is non- invasive - no implants - just an electro-encephalography, or EEG, cap with 64 electrodes. When a participant thinks about a specific movement, neurons in the brain's motor cortex produce tiny electrical signals. BIN HE: The computer is going to read that digital signal and do all the processing and extract out a brain signal, and control the Quadcopter. MILES O'BRIEN: Participants develop their own "motor

    00:01:45 imagination," or simple mind tricks to help differentiate between moving the object up, down, right, and left. BRAD EDELMAN: So for me, catching a baseball is very different in my left hand from throwing a baseball in my right hand. So, that really helps me kind of focus on one particular hand at a time to help move the helicopter to the right or the left. MILES O'BRIEN: The interface is designed to help with simple, everyday tasks, like turning on a light switch. But, professor he and his team chose the Quadcopter for the testing phase

    00:02:14 to keep participants challenged, and eager to succeed. BIN HE: The more fun they feel, the more engaging, the better the performance they can do. MILES O'BRIEN: Whether it's a wounded veteran or a stroke patient, the aim is independence. Eventually, he says this interface may help re-wire brain circuits to bypass damaged areas. BIN HE: You want to make a phone call, you want to turn on the TV, you want to switch the channels, you want to surf the internet. There is a huge societal and economic benefit

    00:02:44 to society eventually with this research. MILES O'BRIEN: Harnessing brainpower to help people with disabilities do for themselves. A high-flying idea. Just think about it. For Science Nation, I'm Miles O'Brien.