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Post by wheelieInCali on Jan 6, 2011 11:46:42 GMT -5
Wait a minute, I'm better. Not only am I an actual Marine but I've handled my injury better than him. Eat me Sam Worthington. Ok, to the topic. I go to the Long Beach Veterans hospital which sees a lot of doctors from UCLA and UC Irvine where the Reeve-Irvine research center is. I get invited to participate in research studies often. So the newest one I am going to help out in is pretty cool. I've heard from several neurologists and orthopedic surgeons that the cure, specifically stem cell therapy won't be realized in our lifetime but more possibly computerized Electronic Muscle Stimulation or even nervous system actuating devices. So the doctor with a degree in biomedical engineering told me last time I went in for medication refills about his new project. He has funding for a device that you wear on your head that is able to recognize brain patterns associated with walking. It will transmit these signals into pulses that will electronically jolt the leg muscles into replicating a walking motion. So I'm going to go in, wear the thing over my head and think about walking while controlling a figure on a computer screen which he called, get this, an avatar. I wonder how far into the process I will be in this research. Sounds cool huh? Especially for a computer science, science-fiction enthusiast like me  |
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Post by trinity on Jan 6, 2011 12:27:45 GMT -5
Wait a minute, I'm better. Sure Wheeli, you are definitively better than Sully, you are real!  I wonder how far into the process I will be in this research. Sounds cool huh? Especially for a computer science, science-fiction enthusiast like me The project seems really great and your passion will fuel the research! So cool!! If you want and can, please pm me a reference. |
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Post by Emma on Jan 6, 2011 14:44:19 GMT -5
Very interesting. Please keep us informed about it.
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Post by BA on Jan 6, 2011 18:54:29 GMT -5
Wait a minute, I'm better. Not only am I an actual Marine but I've handled my injury better than him. Eat me Sam Worthington. You know what? You are 100% correct. Instead of asking Sam to eat you though, I'd ask him for a good part of the paycheck he received pretending to be you!  Now as far as the research goes. That is WAY out. Very cool stuff. I hope you don't turn blue and grow a tail. |
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Post by Valkyrja on Jan 6, 2011 20:14:47 GMT -5
Totally correct, Cali... you are way beter than Sully... cause, like you say... you are real!!
Sam Wartington (or however it writes!!) is an actor and Sully is a fictional character... personally I´m amazed by the FX they used to make him look a real wheeler!....
But... like all the devs in here... I prefer the real deal!
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Post by Inigo Montoya on Jan 6, 2011 21:58:14 GMT -5
Wait a minute, I'm better. Not only am I an actual Marine but I've handled my injury better than him. Yes, yes, yes. ;D I've heard from several neurologists and orthopedic surgeons that the cure, specifically stem cell therapy won't be realized in our lifetime but more possibly computerized Electronic Muscle Stimulation or even nervous system actuating devices. So the doctor with a degree in biomedical engineering told me last time I went in for medication refills about his new project. He has funding for a device that you wear on your head that is able to recognize brain patterns associated with walking. It will transmit these signals into pulses that will electronically jolt the leg muscles into replicating a walking motion. So I'm going to go in, wear the thing over my head and think about walking while controlling a figure on a computer screen which he called, get this, an avatar. I wonder how far into the process I will be in this research. Sounds cool huh? Especially for a computer science, science-fiction enthusiast like me That sounds way cool... please keep us informed?  |
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Post by wheelieInCali on Feb 4, 2011 16:49:13 GMT -5
I set up my first appointment for this coming Tuesday. The girl I talked to on the phone seemed personable and nice, maybe I can be more than a guinea pig. I don't know if they will let me, but I'd LOVE to work in the programming aspect of this technology. On a related note, this eye tracking software recently developed looks pretty cool. Has anybody here ever use anything like this? How well does it work? trendsupdates.com/virtual-games-now-a-reality-for-the-disabled/ |
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Post by msademarro on Feb 4, 2011 18:44:47 GMT -5
So the doctor with a degree in biomedical engineering told me last time I went in for medication refills about his new project. He has funding for a device that you wear on your head that is able to recognize brain patterns associated with walking. It will transmit these signals into pulses that will electronically jolt the leg muscles into replicating a walking motion. So I'm going to go in, wear the thing over my head and think about walking while controlling a figure on a computer screen which he called, get this, an avatar. I wonder how far into the process I will be in this research. Sounds cool huh? Especially for a computer science, science-fiction enthusiast like me Sounds very cool! Let us know how it goes. |
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Post by ~Z28gal~ on Feb 9, 2011 0:10:48 GMT -5
Wheelie... it's Tuesday!!!! Or was until 10 minutes ago. Update?? |
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Post by wheelieInCali on Feb 10, 2011 0:09:25 GMT -5
Sorry about the delay, I had no sleep and little food to fuel me on my trip to UC Irvine on Tuesday so that night I went to bed early. I didn't sleep like a log, nor did I sleep like a baby. I slept like a log of babies!
I think that having little sleep and no food during the experiment had an adverse affect on my brain waves. There was little discernment between my walking mode versus my still mode. The avatar moved and stopped but not as controlled as I would have hoped for. They said that most people do about as well as I did the first time and that I will most likely find my groove as the study progresses. They make videos of them using the BCI (Brain Communication Interface) and I asked if we could do a video of me controlling the avatar one time.
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Post by ~Z28gal~ on Feb 10, 2011 12:55:27 GMT -5
Clearly your avatar was sleepwalking!!! From what I've read, it usually takes a couple sessions to "train" your brain. Did they hook you up directly to the avatar, or did they show you some of the data your brain was sending to the computer? I always thought that watching the graphs of brainwaves would be a faster way to "train" since there's no disconnect between you and the computer.
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Post by wheelieInCali on Feb 10, 2011 14:21:53 GMT -5
Yeah, you can see the waves on the screen but there are 64 of them and to the human, untrained eye, it looks erratic. Plus, if I'm trying to figure out the waves I won't be able to think about "walking". Funny sidebar, if you clench your teeth, the waves go nuts! Before you go to the avatar, you train the computer by telling it when you are "walking" and "standing still". My difference between the two wasn't clear enough to the computer the first time I did it (70% or some such statistical ratio). The second time I tried to teach the computer the difference, I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open, that couldn't have been good for the results (60%) Maybe next time I'll just clench my teeth to walk and relax to stand still. Totally defeat the point of the research but would make the results look good. |
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Post by wheelieInCali on Feb 10, 2011 14:27:01 GMT -5
I set up my first appointment for this coming Tuesday. The girl I talked to on the phone seemed personable and nice, maybe I can be more than a guinea pig. I don't know if they will let me, but I'd LOVE to work in the programming aspect of this technology. I don't think I'll be able to do any programming. The dude who does the programming is kind of a social outcast I think. Him and the girl were bickering at each other the whole time, lol. Plus he used Matlab to make the program to read the brain waves, never used it and have heard horror stories ... today. Who knows, if it goes any further than me moving an avatar we'll see what happens. |
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