評論
打印
Science and technology.
科技。
Bionics.
仿生學。
I think I'd like some coffee.
我想來點咖啡。
A paralysed woman gets herself a drink.
四肢癱瘓的女人也能自己喝咖啡。
HELPING yourself to a cup of coffee may seem like a small, everyday thing. But not if you are quadriplegic. Unlike paraplegics, for whom the robotic legs described in the previous article are being developed, quadriplegics have lost the use of all four limbs. Yet thanks to a project organised by John Donoghue of Brown University, in Rhode Island, and his colleagues, they too have hope. One of the participants in his experiments, a 58-year-old woman who is unable to use any of her limbs, can now pick up a bottle containing coffee and bring it close enough to her mouth to drink from it using a straw. She does so using a thought-controlled robotic arm fixed to a nearby stand. It is the first time she has managed something like that since she suffered a stroke, nearly 15 years ago.
給自己倒杯咖啡對普通人來說是一件再平常不過的小事，但對于一個四肢癱瘓的人來說就不是這樣了，不像下身麻痹患者，前文中提到的機械腿已經發展得很成熟，但全身癱瘓的人四肢都不能使用，現在多虧了羅德島州布朗大學的John Donoghue和他同事發起的一項計劃，四肢癱瘓者也有了希望。在他的實驗中有一位58歲的女患者，她四肢癱瘓，但她現在能夠拿起一瓶咖啡并送到嘴邊，再用吸管喝下，她完成這個動作是靠思想控制固定在旁邊的機械臂，這也是她15年前中風以來，第一次像這樣掌控一些東西。
Arms are more complicated pieces of machinery than legs, so controlling them via electrodes attached to the skin of someone's scalp is not yet possible. Instead, brain activity has to be recorded directly. And that is what Dr Donoghue is doing. Both his female participant and a second individual, a man of 66 also paralysed by a stroke, have worked with him before, as a result of which they have had small, multichannel electrodes implanted in the parts of the motor cortexes of their brains associated with hand movements. The woman's implant was put there in 2005; the man's five months before the latest trial, described in a paper just published in Nature.
由于手臂上的機械零件比腿更復雜，所以通過依附在頭皮上的電極來控制它們不大現實，而大腦活動是可以被檢測到的——這就是Donoghue博士所做的事情。不僅那個女患者，還有一個66歲的男中風患者也參與了他的實驗，Donoghue博士先找到參與者大腦中控制手活動的區域，再把一些小型多波段電極植入該運動皮質。根據剛剛發表在《自然》雜志上的論文，女患者在2005年就植入了，而男患者的最新植入才5個月。
Dr Donoghue and his team decoded signals from their participants' brains as they were asked to imagine controlling a robotic arm making preset movements. The volunteers were then encouraged to operate one of two robot arms by thinking about the movements they wanted to happen. When the software controlling the arms detected the relevant signals, the arms moved appropriately.
Donoghue博士和他的團隊先設定一個動作，讓參與者想象通過機械臂去完成它，這個過程中大腦的信號就會被記錄和破譯出來。然后Donoghue博士再鼓勵他們去控制其中一只機械臂去完成自己想要的動作，機械臂上的控制軟件在檢測到相關信號之后，機械臂就會進行相應的移動。
The arm that the woman used to help herself to a drink is a lightweight device developed by DLR, Germany's Aerospace Centre, as part of its robotics programme. The other, known as a DEKA arm, is being developed in America specifically as a prosthetic for those who have lost an arm. Normally, it is operated by the wearer moving his chest or moving his toes over buttons in a shoe. The participants used it to reach and grasp a ball made of foam rubber.
能讓女患者自己喝水的這個輕量級機械臂來自于DLR（德國航空航天中心），這也是機器人計劃的一部分，其他的還有DEKA的機械臂，該廠專為殘疾人士提供假肢，并且在美國已經相當成熟。一般情況下，穿戴者會通過移動他們的胸部或者用腳趾按鞋子上的按鈕來操作，這樣他們還可以抓起泡沫橡膠球。
Dr Donoghue and his colleagues have thus shown that a mechanical arm can be controlled remotely by the brain of a person with paralysis. Controlling a true prosthetic-an arm that is attached to the individual's body-will be trickier, but in time even that may be possible. In the meantime, a robotic arm attached to (say) a wheelchair will be a real boon. For people who have little or no ability to move their arms Dr Donoghue's work promises liberation in the form of quotidian action that the able-bodied take for granted.
Donoghue博士和他的同事證明了癱瘓者可以通過大腦來控制較遠的機械臂。要直接控制安裝在身體上的假肢還是比較麻煩，即使理論上是可行的，但是現在把機械臂安裝在輪椅上（打個比方）是一個更加實用的好事。對于那些沒有能力或者只有有限能力支配他們手臂的患者來說，Donoghue博士的成果解放了他們，讓他們也能夠完成那些我們認為理所當然的瑣事。
