Paralyzed man walks again with robo-suit
A quadriplegic man in France has been able to move all four of his paralyzed limbs, thanks to a pioneering new braincontrolled body suit. His movement remains extremely jerky, and the exoskeleton is years from being publicly available. But scientists nevertheless see this as a major breakthrough in the treatment of paralysis. The 28-year-old patient, a former optician identified only as Thibault, said taking his first steps in the suit felt like being the “first man on the moon.” Paralyzed from the shoulders down after falling from a balcony four years ago, Thibault had two implants surgically placed on the outer membrane of his brain, covering the parts that control movement. Electrodes read his brain signals and send them to a nearby computer, which almost instantaneously translates the brain waves into movement instructions for the exoskeleton suit. Thibault spent two years training the computer program to understand his thoughts by controlling a character in a computer simulation, making it walk and interact with virtual objects. He then moved on to the exoskeleton, which is suspended from an overhead harness. Experts say the technology could eventually pave the way for mind-controlled wheelchairs and other devices to help paraplegics. “This isn’t about turning man into machine but about responding to a medical problem,” study leader Alim Louis Benabid tells Agence France-Presse. “We’re talking about ‘repaired man,’ not ‘augmented man.’”