Paralytic World Interface
Level - GradProblem Statement:
You are presented with a 53-year old patient, JR, a patient at the VA hospital near Emory. He is completely paralyzed (with the exception of slight movement in his face) as the result of a stroke. The stroke/paralysis is the result of an arterial embolus and resulting damage to the corticospinal tract in the subject’s brainstem. These “locked-in” patients experience profound frustration because of their inability to control their interactions with the world. Your goal is to propose a design, which will give back to patients like JR some portion of the life that has been lost by augmenting their current capabilities. To do this, you will need to identify:
- the kind of augmentation you would like to achieve
- the kind of information would be needed to support such augmentation
- the kind of biosignals that would provide that information
- the method for extracting the signals
- the issues in processing those signals and the potential solutions.
Resources:
Dr. Phil Kennedy, JR’s neurologist at Emory
JR: (There will be an opportunity to schedule one brief visit with him.)
Richard Nichols-Professor of Physiology-Emory
Mike Crutcher-Assiciate Professor of Neurology-Emory
Paul Benkeser-GT
Steve DeWeerth-GT