Here we go, here we go, here we go yo!
Guardian Unlimited | Life | Meet the mind readers:
In that moment, Nagle made history. Paralysed from the neck down after a vicious knife attack four years ago, he is the first person to have controlled an artificial limb using a device chronically implanted into his brain.
(Not to nitpick, but Kevin Warwick was able to control an artificial hand via his neural implant in his forearm 3 years ago, but ok, we're talking brain implants here...)
While Wolpaw has achieved control many thought impossible without implanting electrodes directly into the brain, he feels a third technique, called electrocorticography, or Ecog, might have the brightest future. Ecog involves a smaller operation to place a small sheet of electrodes on the surface of the brain. "With this, you get strong signals, you can pick them up from smaller areas but you're not sticking something into the brain," he says. Preliminary trials show patients can learn to use Ecog devices much faster than electrodes placed on their scalps.
Where do I sign? ;)
(Link originally found at USC IMD Weblog)
Updated nitpicking:
Patrick wrote in to mention that Warwick said, 3 years ago, he was aiming to do the brain implant thing within 10 years, but Wolpaw (using Nagle as the subject) beat him to it.
Nagle a battu Warwick, qui disait qu'il mettra un implant dans son cerveau d'ici 10 ans (il y a 3 ans)!
"Although he had the electronic implant in his arm for just three months, and his wife for only a day, he is now building up to putting one in his brain within 10 years or so."
