Engineers in this program, part of DARPA’s “brain research portfolio,” have already built a super-high-tech prosthetic arm for a Vietnam veteran, Fred Downs, who lost his during the war.
Two sensors are attached to the shoe laces that use a Bluetooth-like signal to control the arm, so his feet act like joysticks. Mr. Downs can, say, subtly move his foot to the right to make his wrist turn the same way.
Each prosthetic patient can custom design his or her own movement controls. DARPA engineers even created specific wrist motions so that Downs, a birdcage-making aficionado, can do that delicate work. The next step, engineers say, are prosthetic limbs that patients can control with their brains alone.
