Student Seminar 2006 12 08 Mind Robot Control
From CISSTwiki
ERC CISST - Student Seminar
Can Your Mind (Brain) Control a Robot?
Date: Friday, December 8, 2006
Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm Lunch will be served before the seminar
Place: Shaffer 100
Agenda
12:00pm - 12:05pm
Welcome & Speaker Introduction
12:05pm - 1:00pm
Guest speaker, Dr. Nitish Thakor discussion and Q&A session
Abstract
Human limbs receive signals and commands from the central nervous system to operate. For example, human hand and fingers achieve high levels of dexterity through cortical commands conveyed by the nerves to the hand and fingers. Then, how would we provide command and control to prosthetic (artificial) limbs? Would it be possible to use brain activity to provide command signals prosthetic hand and fingers? That is, can your mind provide any degree of control over a robotic mechansm?
This is the challenge being tackled by the new "Revolutionary Prosthesis" program underway within the consortium of Universities led by JHU & APL investigators. I will present a brief introduction to the problem of prosthesis and present the current designs of multi-fingered robotic mechanisms being developed for prosthesis use. Then, I will present a brief introduction to brain waves and brain wave analysis. Next, applications of brain waves to control computers and prosthetic mechanisms will be presented. Finally, I will describe how invasive microprobes implanted in the brain may be used to achieve complex command and control of prosthetic hand and fingers and what further challenges lie ahead. Clearly, this is just a beginning of an exciting and challenging frontier.
So, humans: arise and use your brains to control the robots. Mind would be a terrible thing to waste...if it cannot even control a robot.
Bio
Nitish V. Thakor received B. Tech. degree in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in 1974 and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1981. He served on the faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the Northwestern University between 1981 and 1983, and since then he has been with the Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, where he is currently serving as a Professor of Biomedical Engineering. He conducts research on neurological instrumentation, biomedical signal processing, micro and nanotechnologies, neural prosthesis, and clinical applications of neural and rehabilitation technologies. He has authored more than 160 peer-reviewed publications on these subjects. He is the Editor in Chief of IEEE Transactions on Neural and Rehabilitation Engineering. Currently he directs the Laboratory for Neuroengineering and is also the Director of the NIH Training Grant on Neuroengineering. One of his current research projects, in collaboration with a multi-University consortium, funded by DARPA, is to develop a next generation neurally controlled upper limb prosthesis. He is actively interested in developing international scientific programs, collaborative exchanges, tutorials and conferences on Neuroengineering and Medical Microsystems. Dr. Thakor is a recipient of a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health and a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, IEEE and Founding Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society. He is also a recipient of the Centennial Medal from the University of Wisconsin School of Engineering, Honorary Membership from Alpha Eta Mu Beta Biomedical Engineering student Honor Society and Distinguished Service Award from IIT Bombay.
Nitish V. Thakor, Ph.D.
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
720 Rutland Av., Baltimore, MD 21205
Tel: 410-955-7093; Fax: 410-955-0549
email: 
www.bme.jhu.edu/~nthakor