This Exoskeleton Is Actually Controlled by the Wearer's Thoughts

While this sounds useful for us it probably would require lots more work for survivors to use since the motor cortex may not be working very well and the thoughts driving this may need to be decoded from the premotor cortex instead. A great stroke association would sponsor research to figure this out.  In my case it would have to go all the way back to the executive control area since most of my motor and premotor cortex is dead.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-exoskeleton-actually-controlled-by-wearers-thoughts-180956567/?no-ist

University of Houston engineer Jose Contreras-Vidal does some futuristic, stranger-than-science-fiction research. He’s developed a “brain-machine interface” to interpret brain signals and turn them into movement. With this interface, he has created a bionic hand and a computer avatar that are controlled by the user's mind.
But the centerpiece of his work is a thought-controlled exoskeleton to help paralyzed people walk. For the past several years, Contreras-Vidal has been working with the REX lower body exoskeleton, developed by New Zealand-based REX Bionics. The exoskeleton is made to be controlled with a joystick. But Contreras-Vidal and his team have retrofitted a version to be used with their brain-machine interface. The user of the exoskeleton wears an electrode cap, with sensors on the scalp that read electrical activity in the brain. An algorithm developed by Contreras-Vidal and his team “interprets” the brain information and translates it into movement of the exoskeleton. In other words, the wearer thinks “move, left knee,” and the algorithm turns it into action. This can create relatively quick movements, as even in non-injured people it takes a split second for information to travel from the brain to the body.
“Any time we plan a movement, the information is there before we’re actually seeing the movement,” Contreras-Vidal says.

A number of researchers over the years have helped paralyzed people move using electrodes implanted in their brains. Contreras-Vidal’s patent-pending system is different because it is noninvasive—users take the electrode cap on and off at will. This is particularly useful in the case of patients who will only need the exoskeleton temporarily, such as stroke victims who might use the exoskeleton to regain walking ability, then learn to walk unaided. (A Brazilian-led team developed a noninvasive brain-controlled exoskeleton to allow a paraplegic to kick off the 2014 World Cup; the suit, however, didn't allow the user to walk unaided).

The thought-controlled exoskeleton is the result of years of work on decoding the language of the brain. At the University of Houston, Contreras-Vidal directs the Laboratory for Non-invasive Brain-Machine Interface Systems, which employs a team of engineers, neuroscientists, doctors, computer experts and even artists. Before Houston, he directed the Laboratory of Neural Engineering and Smart Prosthetics at the University of Maryland, where he worked on developing brain-controlled prosthetics for amputees. The algorithms used to translate thoughts into movement are constantly being improved, Contreras-Vidal says, in what he describes as a "creative process."Right now, his lab is working on several projects using the brain-machine interface. One project looks at neuro-motor development in children using the electrode cap; the team hopes a better understanding of this process may eventually help children with neurological developmental disorders, such as autism. Another seeks to understand what happens in the brain when people experience art, fitting museum-goers with an electrode cap as they look at an art installation. 

The brain-controlled exoskeleton is currently undergoing trials. It's already been used in a number of real-life scenarios; a British quadriplegic man recently walked using the exoskeleton at a conference in Italy.  Contreras-Vidal and several of his students will be demonstrating the exoskeleton at the Smithsonian’s upcoming Innovation Festival. The festival, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, is happening September 26 and 27 at the National Museum of American History.
“We’re very excited about going to the Smithsonian, because I think scientists need to talk to the public, particularly to children,” Contreras-Vidal says. “They need to be exposed to this type of technology to see it’s really about creating and innovating.”
As if the robot-like exoskeleton is not impressive enough for kids and other festival-goers, Contreras-Vidal and his team will allow visitors to view their own brainwaves on a screen by donning electrode caps. Contreras-Vidal describes tuning into a person’s brainwaves as “listening to the neurosymphony.”
“I like to see the brain as a symphony, where all the major areas are part of the ensemble and each player in this ensemble is responsible for some aspect of their behavior,” he says. “To play this music they need to coordinate.”

image: http://thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com//filer/0c/2b/0c2b0fa1-f773-4019-a540-7cd59aac9d72/dancer-becky-valls.jpg__800x450_q85_crop_upscale.jpg

Dancer Becky Valls performs wearing Contreras-Vidal's electrode cap (University of Houston)

The overlap of art and science is an important part of Contreras-Vidal's work. In the past, he's wired up artists to peer into their brains' creative processes. More recently he's been working with dancers. In a project called Your Brain on Dance, he's fitted dancers with electrode caps and displayed the resulting brain waves on a screen as they perform. He believes that ultimately this kind of inquiry into the neural basis of movement could lead to a new understanding of Parkinson's and other brain diseases.
At the Innovation Festival, visitors will be treated to such a dance performance.
“Scientists can learn a lot from art and vice versa,” Contreras-Vidal says. “I’m hoping that this will capture the imagination of people, children especially.”

World's First Thought-Controlled Bionic Leg Unveiled by Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago

And with just a little bit more research it should be easily able to be adapted to send signals to stop the spastic muscles and fire the correct ones in sequence. But don't expect any of our ineffective stroke organizations to take on that challenge. That would require brains, innovation and hard work. 

World's First Thought-Controlled Bionic Leg Unveiled by Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago  

The science of bionics helped the more than 1 million Americans¹ with leg amputations take a giant step forward, as the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) revealed clinical applications for the world's first thought-controlled bionic leg in this week's New England Journal of Medicine. This innovative technology represents a significant milestone in the rapidly-growing field of bionics. Until now, only thought-controlled bionic arms were available to amputees.
To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/63339-rehabilitation-institute-of-chicago-first-thought-controlled-bionic-leg
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130925/MM85148)
Levi Hargrove, PhD, the lead scientist of this research at RIC's Center for Bionic Medicine, developed a system to use neural signals to safely improve limb control of a bionic leg.
"This new bionic leg features incredibly intelligent engineering," said Hargrove. "It learns and performs activities unprecedented for any leg amputee, including seamless transitions between sitting, walking, ascending and descending stairs and ramps and repositioning the leg while seated."
This method improves upon prosthetic legs that only use robotic sensors and remote controls and do not allow for intuitive thought control of the prosthetic.
The case study focuses on RIC research subject Zac Vawter, a lower-limb amputee who underwent targeted muscle reinnervation surgery – a procedure developed at RIC and Northwestern University – in 2009 to redirect nerves from damaged muscle in his amputated limb to healthy hamstring muscle above his knee. When the redirected nerves instruct the muscles to contract, sensors on the patient's leg detect tiny electrical signals from the muscles. A specially-designed computer program analyzes these signals and data from sensors in the robotic leg. It instantaneously decodes the type of movement the patient is trying to perform and then sends those commands to the robotic leg. Using muscle signals, instead of robotic sensors, makes the system safer and more intuitive.
"The bionic leg is a big improvement compared to my regular prosthetic leg," stated Vawter. "The bionic leg responds quickly and more appropriately, allowing me to interact with my environment in a way that is similar to how I moved before my amputation. For the first time since my injury, the bionic leg allows me to seamlessly walk up and down stairs and even reposition the prosthetic by thinking about the movement I want to perform. This is a huge milestone for me and for all leg amputees."
Army Funding More than 1,200 leg amputees in the United States are recently injured servicemen and women.²
The US Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) funded the RIC study with an $8 million grant to improve the control of advanced robotic leg prostheses by adding neural information to the control system. Due to this unusually large TATRC grant for the rehabilitation field and a multi-disciplinary team, RIC was able to accomplish these breakthrough innovations in only four years.
"We are pleased to partner with the RIC Center for Bionic Medicine in the development of user intent controlled bionic limbs," said Col. John Scherer, director of the Clinical and Rehabilitative Medicine Program at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.  "We appreciate the opportunity to sponsor this life-changing effort to provide military amputees with as much physical functionality as possible, as soon as possible."
This partnership aims to make these bionic legs available for in-home testing for both the military and civilian populations within the next five years.
About The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) is the nation's leading provider of comprehensive physical medicine and rehabilitation care to patients from around the world. Ranked No. 1 by both U.S. News and World Report and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, RIC holds an unparalleled market distinction.
With a record six multi-year, multi-million dollar federal research designations awarded and funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Education's National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research in the areas of spinal cord injury, brain injury, stroke, neurological rehabilitation, outcomes research, bionic medicine/rehabilitation engineering research, and pediatric orthopedics, RIC operates the largest rehabilitation research enterprise in the world. RIC also operates its 182-bed, flagship hospital in downtown Chicago, as well as a network of more than 40 sites of care distributed throughout the Midwest, through which it delivers inpatient, day rehabilitation, and outpatient services.
The Center for Bionic Medicine at RIC is one of the world's largest prosthetics and orthotic research centers; it focuses on developing bionic legs, bionic arms, and other innovative rehabilitation technologies.
Founded in 1954, RIC has been designated the "No. 1 Rehabilitation Hospital in America" by U.S. News & World Report every year since 1991. RIC sets the standard of care in the post-acute market through its innovative applied research and discovery programs, particularly in the areas of neuroscience, bionic medicine, musculoskeletal medicine and technology transfer. For more information, go to www.ric.org.
About the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center The Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) explores, innovates and manages medical technologies that advance military medicine. TATRC serves as the primary execution manager for Defense Health Programs research while exploring science and engineering technologies leveraging other programs to maximize benefits to military health care.
TATRC's vision is to be the Department of Defense (DoD) model for enablement of transformational medical research. TATRC is the science and technology scout for military medicine and the center of gravity for Army telemedicine initiatives. TATRC initiates, sponsors, promotes, and oversees programs and partnerships in medical science and engineering that support military medical programs. With the strategic application of funding from small business innovation research/small business technology transfer, Army Medical Department advanced medical technology initiatives, and other sources, TATRC accelerates the implementation of novel science and engineering technology applications through validation studies, translational research, and demonstration projects. As a result, TATRC is a network of experts and capabilities positioned to rapidly address urgent DoD needs. For more information about TATRC, please visit:  www.tatrc.org

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/25/5768318/worlds-first-thought-controlled.html#storylink=cpy