A set of four brain implants -- chips half the size of a dress shirt button -- have allowed a 30-year-old man to not only control a robot arm but also feel sensations from the individual fingers of the arm, researchers with the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center report.
"I can feel just about every finger -- it's a really weird sensation," patient Nathan Copeland said about a month after the surgery that implanted the chips. "Sometimes it feels electrical and sometimes it's pressure, but for the most part, I can tell most of the fingers with definite precision. It feels like my fingers are getting touched or pushed."
