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8 Paralyzed Patients Regain Movement, Feeling with VR

SEANMCADSEANMCAD Member EpicPosts: 16,775
in Hardware
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/8-paralyzed-patients-regain-movement-feeling-vr-n628256

very important news in my view

Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.

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Comments

  • GladDogGladDog Member RarePosts: 1,097
    Pretty amazing news, and a great use for VR that honestly I was not expecting to see.  Wow, if this had been around before my sister died...


    The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!


  • H0urg1assH0urg1ass Member EpicPosts: 2,380
    Yes, the VR is a component of the paralyzed learning to walk.  However, the BCI (Brain Computer Interface) or DNI (Direct Neural Interface) as us Shadowrun players have called it for thirty years, is the real contributor here.  VR is actually a very recent component in research/experiments that have been ongoing since the 90's.

    So what's happening, and this has been going on for a decade prior to the first VR device ever hitting the market, is that the patient either has a chip implanted into their brain or they opt to wear an EEG helmet.  This chip or helmet reads their brain wave patterns and those patterns are sent to an exoskeleton which they must control with their mind to make it walk.  By doing this, they can actually wake up dormant nerves in their spinal column that weren't really dead and eventually regain partial movement in their legs.

    Where the VR component comes in, and in fact it was being done on TV screens and computer monitors for several years, is that it allows them to immerse themselves in attempting to use their brain waves to move an exoskeleton while looking down at a pair of avatar legs.  The VR, then allows them to focus more on their legs than the machinery.


  • GladDogGladDog Member RarePosts: 1,097
    H0urg1ass said:
    Yes, the VR is a component of the paralyzed learning to walk.  However, the BCI (Brain Computer Interface) or DNI (Direct Neural Interface) as us Shadowrun players have called it for thirty years, is the real contributor here.  VR is actually a very recent component in research/experiments that have been ongoing since the 90's.

    So what's happening, and this has been going on for a decade prior to the first VR device ever hitting the market, is that the patient either has a chip implanted into their brain or they opt to wear an EEG helmet.  This chip or helmet reads their brain wave patterns and those patterns are sent to an exoskeleton which they must control with their mind to make it walk.  By doing this, they can actually wake up dormant nerves in their spinal column that weren't really dead and eventually regain partial movement in their legs.

    Where the VR component comes in, and in fact it was being done on TV screens and computer monitors for several years, is that it allows them to immerse themselves in attempting to use their brain waves to move an exoskeleton while looking down at a pair of avatar legs.  The VR, then allows them to focus more on their legs than the machinery.


    Nice use of misdirection.  I'm mightily impressed.


    The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!


  • H0urg1assH0urg1ass Member EpicPosts: 2,380
    GladDog said:
    H0urg1ass said:
    Stuff

    Nice use of misdirection.  I'm mightily impressed.
    The misdirection here is discounting the decades of determined work from brilliant scientists who are trying to help improve the lives of humanity, but that's all being brushed aside for additional publicity for Facebook's burgeoning VR empire.
  • SEANMCADSEANMCAD Member EpicPosts: 16,775
    yeah um for ONCE can we please not troll VR and lets try to keep our troll away for at least this one thread please?

    Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.

    Please do not respond to me

  • H0urg1assH0urg1ass Member EpicPosts: 2,380
    SEANMCAD said:
    yeah um for ONCE can we please not troll VR and lets try to keep our troll away for at least this one thread please?
    Facts are now trolling.  Gotcha.  Sorry scientist dudes, but Palmer Luckey has done more for paralyzed patients than your decades of research, engineering and experiments.  Common Bubba, lets go home.
  • SEANMCADSEANMCAD Member EpicPosts: 16,775
    H0urg1ass said:
    SEANMCAD said:
    yeah um for ONCE can we please not troll VR and lets try to keep our troll away for at least this one thread please?
    Facts are now trolling.  Gotcha.  Sorry scientist dudes, but Palmer Luckey has done more for paralyzed patients than your decades of research, engineering and experiments.  Common Bubba, lets go home.
    I am taking that as a no.

    Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.

    Please do not respond to me

  • laseritlaserit Member LegendaryPosts: 7,591
    SEANMCAD said:
    yeah um for ONCE can we please not troll VR and lets try to keep our troll away for at least this one thread please?
    Ah.... but is it VR? or really AR? or a combination of both?

    p.s. I'm only jesting with you Sean, nice article.

    "Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee

  • SEANMCADSEANMCAD Member EpicPosts: 16,775
    edited August 2016
    laserit said:
    SEANMCAD said:
    yeah um for ONCE can we please not troll VR and lets try to keep our troll away for at least this one thread please?
    Ah.... but is it VR? or really AR? or a combination of both?

    p.s. I'm only jesting with you Sean, nice article.
    this is a bitch fest I am not going to be a part of nope I am out on this one have fun guys

    Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.

    Please do not respond to me

  • FlyByKnightFlyByKnight Member EpicPosts: 3,967
    It's hard when you're shilling for it every thread. I think it's less about VR and more about who keeps posting and replying to VR threads every time. It's really hard NOT to troll.

    Example, I saw this thread and I suddenly got the urge to post this:



    I was going to write a fake onion.com story about how this piece of fad tech helped some blind people to see.

    I figured I'd just be honest and tell you its not VR. It's you.
    "As far as the forum code of conduct, I would think it's a bit outdated and in need of a refre *CLOSED*" 

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • GladDogGladDog Member RarePosts: 1,097
    My sister was born with Spinobifida.  They did an operation on her back when she was 18 months old (the first time this procedure had been done, btw) that saved her life, but left her paralyzed from her waist down.  I have been VERY interested in the treatment of paralyzed people, very invested.  Yes, Palmer Lucky has done a lot, but there are a lot of people that have been involved in this work.  My sister, born in 1959 and paralyzed from 1961 on, was a test case for a lot of the procedures that are considered normal these days.  And I tell you what; if there was a way that she could have gotten ANY feeling back in her legs, I would not cared what method or doctor was involved.  Unfortunately, the disease she had complicated by her paralysis took her life in 2004.  So she will not see any of the benefits of this research.

    But personally, I don't want to see any child or adult go through what she did, or rise above what she had to, or see such a damn beautiful person as she was taken from this Earth that early, ever again.  Any treatment that can help a child to walk, or an adult make it to their 60s, man, I want to see it happen.  If this VR therapy helps, I am all for it.


    The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!


  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383
    That is pretty neat, I agree.
  • PhaserlightPhaserlight Member EpicPosts: 3,072
    Incredible.  The brain is a truly powerful organ.

    So much for the 'no real world application for VR' criticism.  I think we can lay that one to rest.

    "The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
    Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383
    GladDog said:
    My sister was born with Spinobifida. 
    I don't have the correct button to click for this; while it is insightful, that doesn't somehow convey the correct sentiment in this case. Thank you for sharing, and my sympathies for your sister and your family.
  • GladDogGladDog Member RarePosts: 1,097
    Ridelynn said:
    GladDog said:
    My sister was born with Spinobifida. 
    I don't have the correct button to click for this; while it is insightful, that doesn't somehow convey the correct sentiment in this case. Thank you for sharing, and my sympathies for your sister and your family.
    My sister was living proof that your life is what you make of it.  The doctors did not think she would reach the age of 12, but she made it to 44.  Most people would completely understand if she sat at her wheelchair and grumbled that 'she got a bum rap'.  But that was not her.

    She got a job the day after she graduated high school because of her incredible typing speed of 160wpm.  Later in life she had CTS and had to have surgery; that slowed her down to 125wpm.  She was working at a military hospital doing transcription, and she was the only one that could type as fast as the doctors could talk!  She didn't take this job as a gift because of her disability, though...

    She was employee of the year at that hospital twice, earning her a large $$$ bonus.  In the early 90s she was national employee of the year for all civilian employees working at military installations, earning $$$ and a paid trip for two to Europe.

    And all of that time she never let a month go by that she did not go to the hospital that took care of her as a child, showing all of those young kids that there was hope for a normal life if they just did not give up.

    And every year on her birthday, whenever her other sisters and/or I could afford it, we threw a big birthday party for her.  She was not shy about her age, she yelled to the heavens!  Those docs saying no way she would make her 12th birthday just motivated her even more!

    I could go on and on, but its getting hard to see through the mist in my eyes...


    The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!


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