The Mind-Controlled Robotic Limb Can Now Give A Thumbs-Up

​The technology that could one day allow amputees and paraplegics to regain control of their lost limbs has gotten more precise. But it's advancing in baby steps, as science so often must.

Two years ago, the world mar​velled as Jan Scheuermann, a quadriplegic woman, moved a robotic arm using her mind. Her motions were awkward and clunky as she grabbed a chocolate bar full-fisted, like a baby, easing it towards her face for a nibble. Though a simple task, it was incredible to watch a woman who hadn't been able to feed herself in almost a decade achieve this personal feat.

Now, she can not just grab a chocolate bar, she can pinch a piece, eat it, and give the thumbs-up, if it's particularly tasty. The latest video from the University of Pittsburgh shows how much Scheuermann's motions have advanced as she more nimbly—though still occasionally clumsily—picks up and maneuvers blocks and balls of different sizes around a surface.

Researchers Brian Wodlinger and Jennifer Collinger spent tw​o years fine-tuning the technology and the computer algorithm that translates the electricity emitted from neurons firing in Scheuermann's brain to the movements of the robotic arm. Now, instead of moving in just seven dimensions, the robotic hand can move in ten different dimensions.

The hand has three basic movements: up and down, forward and backwards, and left and right. The wrist has three movements: a yaw (fanning yourself), a pitch (waving hello), and a roll (waving like the Queen of England). The fingers can move even more precisely: grasping, finger abduction (moving your fingers together or apart, which allows you to do the "live long and prosper" motion), scooping, pinching, and thumb extension (that's the thumbs up).

"10D control allowed Jan to interact with objects in different ways, just as people use their hands to pick up objects depending on their shapes and what they intend to do with them," Collinger said in a press release on the research.

"We hope to repeat this level of control with additional participants and to make the system more robust, so that people who might benefit from it will one day be able to use brain-machine interfaces in daily life."

It's easy to watch these videos and start dreaming of the days of bionic men and women, of a time when quadriplegia will no longer being a life sentence of dependency. But the technology is still very mu​ch in the research phase, with work still to be done to refine the abilities of the arm and perhaps allow for sensory feedback—being able to feel the things you're touching.

Still, for Scheuermann, the process she's made already has been life-altering, she says in the release.

"This has been a fantastic, thrilling, wild ride, and I am so glad I've done this," she said.

"This study has enriched my life, given me new friends and co-workers, helped me contribute to research and taken my breath away."