Tag : Gestures

California: Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, discovered a way to identify people's hand movements by reviewing only data from noninvasive brain imaging, rather than information from the hands themselves. The findings represent an early step towards constructing a non-invasive brain-computer interface that could one day allow individuals with paralysis, amputated limbs, or other physical problems to use their minds to control a device that aids in daily tasks. The research, recently published online ahead of print in the journal Cerebral Cortex, represents the best results thus far in distinguishing single-hand gestures using a completely noninvasive technique, in this case, magnetoencephalography (MEG). "Our goal was to bypass invasive components," said the paper's senior author Mingxiong Huang, PhD, co-director of the MEG Center at the Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego. Huang is also affiliated with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and the Department of Radiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine, as well as the Veterans Affairs (VA) San Diego Healthcare System. "MEG provides a safe and accurate option for developing a brain-computer interface that could ultimately help patients." The researchers underscored the advantages of MEG, which uses a helmet with embedded 306-sensor array to detect the magnetic fields produced by neuronal electric currents moving between neurons in the brain. Alternate brain-computer interface techniques include electrocorticography (ECoG), which requires surgical implantation of electrodes on the brain surface, and scalp electroencephalography (EEG), which locates brain activity less precisely. "With MEG, I can see ...