A new robotic system called NCyborg could help rehabilitate stroke victims, recovering their ability to relay commands from their brain to other body parts, such as their hands. The novel system is being developed by China’s Tongji Hospital (affiliated with the Huazhong University of Science & Technology) and Harvard-affiliated brain-computer interface company BrainCo.
The wearable system will initially be used to rehabilitate stroke victims’ paralyzed hands and, eventually, other limbs. NCyborg will comprise of three main parts:
- An EEG (electroencephalography) headband that reads electrical signals from the brain.
- An armband that reads neuromuscular signals from the forearm.
- A powered robotic glove that is worn on the hand.
How Does It Work?
- The patient performs a specific action with their hand
- The headband and the armband will then detect the accompanying electrical signals and send the data to a linked computer.
- An AI-based algorithm will cross-reference the distinctive pattern of electrical signals with a database of hand movements to establish which action is a match for that particular pattern.
- Finally, the glove activates and moves the hand through the intended action.
Training in this manner should gradually rebuild the wearer’s damaged neural pathways until eventually, the patient will perform the hand movements without any robotic assistance. The NCyborg project is described in a paper published on May 23, 2021, in the journal Brain Hemorrhages.
The creators aim to have the hand-based version of the system completed and publicly available within five years. The system should be well improved at that point, capable of identifying at least eight hand movement intentions with an accuracy rate of more than 90% and a reaction time of fewer than 300 milliseconds.
Dr. Jonh H. Zhang, the co-corresponding author of the paper, said:
The project’s goal is to develop an easy-to-use, reliable and affordable stroke rehabilitation robot that will improve the rehabilitation effect for stroke survivors, speed up the rehabilitation process, and reduce the costs involved.
Last year, at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference, similar technology was presented: a non-invasive, wearable magnetic headpiece developed to help improve recovery for stroke survivors. The device is a multifocal TRPMS placed on the patient’s head and delivers magnetic stimulation that boosts brain activity. Similar to NCyborg, the technology works by safely stimulating the brain to rewire itself.
