Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!usc!snorkelwacker!mintaka!ogicse!blake!milton!jeffj@cbnewsm.ATT.COM
From: jeffj@cbnewsm.ATT.COM (jeffrey.n.jones)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: Brain/Environment "bottleneck"
Keywords: bottleneck
Message-ID: <9876@cbnewsm.ATT.COM>
Date: 5 Mar 90 18:38:31 GMT
References: <2193@milton.acs.washington.edu>
Sender: hlab@milton.acs.washington.edu
Reply-To: jeffj@cbnewsm.ATT.COM (jeffrey.n.jones,ca1028,)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
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>A related issue:  What research has been done in this area?  There's 
>been some talk on the net recently about research involving direct 
>stimulating the visual processing areas of the brain to provide blind 
>people with sight.  Does the opposite work -- with prosthetic limbs, for 
>instance... Can brains learn to trigger neurons in order to activate a 
>foreign object?
>
 
I have read about and seen prosthetic limbs that were crudely controlled
and activated by direct connects to nerves. At a virtual reality seminar
that I just attended there was a mention of a chip that was being developed
that would interface into the nerves and act like a straight switch.

[Moderators Note:]

Dr. Joseph Rosen at Stanford University Medical Center has been conducting
research into this area. The goal of one of the his projects is to 
develope a "chip prosthesis" that will enable specific axon-to-axon
reconnection.





-- 
         Jeff Jones        | Prediction is very difficult, especially 
 UUCP   uunet!seeker!jeffj | about the future.
 Infolinc BBS 415-778-5929 |                   Niels Bohr