I think, therefore I move

Researchers at UT Austin have shown that paralyzed individuals can operate mind-controlled wheelchairs, per a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal iScience.

🧠🦽 How it works: There aren’t any Jedi mind tricks at play here – just plain ole’ science. The UT Austin team recruited three fully-paralyzed volunteers, who were each equipped with a non-invasive brain-machine interface (aka a helmet that detects brain waves). They were then asked to imagine moving their limbs.

• After weeks of trial and error, the researchers nailed down a working system: to move right, the volunteers tried moving both arms. To move left, they imagined moving their legs.
• By the end of the study, two volunteers were able to control their wheelchair’s movement with an accuracy rate of 95+%. Or enough to successfully navigate across a cluttered hospital room – using only their minds.

👀 Looking ahead… Experts said this technology, combined with the recent invention of brain-machine interfaces small enough to fit inside a human ear, means we could feasibly see mind-controlled wheelchairs in the real world within the next decade.