It may walk like a Japanese robot, but it's thinking like a monkey in the US.
Japanese and US researchers said earlier this month that they have created a humanoid robot that acts according to the brain activity of a monkey all the way across the Pacific.
The experiment was part of efforts to develop prosthetic limbs which can be mentally controlled by people with disabilities.
PHOTO: AFP
A laboratory in the western Japanese city of Kyoto unveiled a 155cm tall humanoid, with a friendly-looking face including bulging black eyes, who walked via signals coming into its legs through wires.
Researchers said the robot was responding to the cortical brain activity of a monkey that was walking attached to wires on a treadmill at Duke University in North Carolina. The signal was sent via the Internet.
"We were able to detect the monkey's brain activity while it was walking on the treadmill and relay the data from the US to Japan," the state-backed Japan Science and Technology Agency said in a statement.
"For the first time in the world, we were then able to make our humanoid robot in Japan walk in real-time in a similar manner as the monkey," it said.
The robot was designed by the Japanese agency and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to move by responding to brain activity signals.
Duke University had trained two monkeys to walk on two feet on treadmills. The activity of the animals' hundreds of neurons was recorded from their cortex and converted into data that could be transmitted online.
"We can say that we have made another big step to the realization of a neural prosthetic device that could one day restore lower limb motor functions for paralyzed patients," the statement said.(AFP)
它走路或許像日本的機器人，但思考卻像在美國的猴子。
日本、美國的研究員們說這個月初，他們橫跨太平洋遙控了一個類人機器人的行動，其行動是依據猴子的腦部活動進行。
該實驗是為了發展可供身障人士以腦力控制的義肢。
位在日本西部大城京都的一間實驗室，對外公開了這個高一百五十五公分的機器人。它擁有一張和善的面孔和凸出的黑眼睛，還能透過線路傳輸到腿上的信號來行走。
研究員們說機器人是在反應一隻猴子腦皮質的活動，這隻接上線路的猴子在美國北卡羅萊納州杜克大學的健步機上走動，線路上的信號則透過網際網路傳輸。
「我們能偵測猴子在健步機上走動時腦部的活動，並將資料從美國傳送到日本，」日本國立「科學技術振興機構」（JST）在聲明中說。
該機構還說︰「這是全球第一例，我們終於能讓日本的人型機器人，同步做出和猴子相似的動作。」
機器人是由該日本機構和美國匹茲堡的卡內基美隆大學合作設計，它可根據腦部活動信號移動。
杜克大學則訓練了兩隻猴子在健步機上用雙腳走路，並記錄牠們腦皮質裡數百個神經元活動的情形，再轉換成可經由網路傳輸的資料。
該聲明指出︰「我們可說跨出了一大步！希望癱瘓病人有朝一日，能藉由神經義肢恢復下肢行動功能。」
（法新社／翻譯：張愛弟）
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