Robotic Arm Obeys Thought Commands

Electrodes implanted into an amputee allowed him to control a robot arm with his thoughts, scientists said today. Over the course of a month, 26-year-old Pierpaolo Petruzziello learned to manipulate the hand through a series of electronic implants connected to his nervous system, reports AP.

"It's a matter of mind, of concentration," Petruzziello said. "When you think of it as your hand and forearm, it all becomes easier." Fellow scientists called the work an important advancement in the development of a neurological interface for prosthetics, but said the work now was to devise a set of electrodes that could safely work in a patient for a lifetime—not just a month.
(More prosthetics stories.)