Fantasy Science Pt. 22: AVATAR & Overcoming Paralysis With Science
Exosuits. Exoskeletons. Biotechnology. Have you heard terms like these flying around the science fiction sections of the film/TV world? Have you ever wondered just how accurately these films portray real science? Well, my friends, today is your lucky day: this column, Fantasy Science & Coffee, aims to bridge the gap between science and science fiction in films and popular culture. My hope is to explain things in a fun way – like we’re chatting over coffee.
You may be thinking: who is this person, why does she think she can explain science, and why the heck would I want to have coffee with her? Well, I’m Radha, a researcher in India, who recently submitted a PhD thesis in theoretical quantum physics. I quite like hot beverages. I’ll also pay.
In this twenty second part of the series published on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month, we are going discuss the film Avatar, and strides real life science has made towards overcoming paralysis.
Overcoming Paralysis in Avatar
James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) is a stunning, visually stimulating film with a touching story: a man who never thought he would walk again takes a new form and finds his home among an alien race. The scientists on Pandora find a way to psionically connect human minds to bodies called ‘avatars’ that resemble those of the locals, the Na’vi.
The avatars are human-Na’vi hybrids made in such a way that they can hold a human mind. When Jake Scully, a paraplegic Marine veteran, is first connected to his avatar, he’s dumbfounded that his new legs work perfectly. He runs, faster than a human is capable of running, and relishes in the feel of the dirt beneath his feet.
While the method of using avatars is fiction, there are hints of truth. No, modern science cannot currently transfer consciousness from one body to another in order to overcome paralysis, but there are very real rapid strides being made in the fields of biotechnology, robotics, and neuroprosthetics that target human mobility.
Exosuit Technology to Overcome Paralysis
If you perhaps consider the Na’vi avatar to be a biological exosuit, then its analogy in the real world could be the exosuits that are being developed for medical purposes. These tech-based exosuits are part of what is called “wearable robot-assisted training”. A pioneer in this field is Ekso Bionics, based in California. One of their promo videos mentions how their Ekso GT model has helped patients take over sixty million steps in over 130 rehab centers worldwide.
The H-Mex suit made by South Korean car company, Hyundai, specifically targets mobility disorders and paralysis.
Other remarkable recent exoskeleton developments include SuitX’s Phoenix Medical Skeleton, which helps those with mobility disorders to walk upright, and a lower-limb exoskeleton prototype that is being developed by Beihang University in China targeting knee injuries.
Exosuits don’t only have medical applications, they are being developed for industrial and military purposes as well. Hyundai is working on wearable robotic suit prototypes to give humans super strength a la Iron Man, and Boeing hopes to rely on exosuit enhancements in order to increase output. From Reuters last month on Boeing:
Boeing Co is counting on a new kind of worker to help it reach a long-coveted target of rolling out 14 787 Dreamliners from its factories each month: half human, half robot. The world’s largest planemaker is equipping mechanics with exoskeletons, similar to ones that allow cameramen to quickly navigate the sidelines of NFL football games, to increase their strength and speed. The high-tech suits also help reduce fatigue on repetitive tasks, such as overhead drilling.
These exoskeletons are based on robotic technology driven to aide or amplify the human body’s motor capabilities. An alternative to these external enhancements is addressing things like paralysis at a biological level.
Bioelectric Medicine to Overcome Paralysis
An exciting development in the upcoming field of bioelectronic medicine was published in 2016 by a group led by École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. They used what they call a “brain-spine interface” to stimulate movement in the paralyzed limbs of two rhesus monkeys.
The procedure involved wirelessly connected implants in the brain and spine. An electrode array implanted in the brain picked up signals from the motor cortex, and sent those signals to a computer. The computer decoded them, and sent them wirelessly to the spinal implant, causing electrical stimulation that instigated movement.
Excitingly, successful human tests have been conducted by the group, at least for the part that involves stimulating electrodes in the spine. Permission has as yet to be granted for human tests using the brain implant. The results are, nonetheless, promising. Grégoire Courtine, professor of neuroprosthetics at EPFL says, “It took us 15 years to get from paralyzed rats to the first steps in humans. Maybe in 10 more years, our technology will be ready for the clinic.”
While these bioelectronic techniques and exosuit technology are not yet ready for mass production across the globe, the strides are promising, and perhaps one day the diagnosis of a mobility disorder may not be as difficult to hear as it is today. The only complaint I have against these strides is that they don’t appear to lead us to cool bioluminescent blue-skinned avatars. Ah well.
More to Explore
Articles
Live5News: Exoskeleton technology is getting a trial run at Boeing to make workers’ jobs less strenuous (2019)
Reuters: Boeing goes bionic to roll out more Dreamliners (2019)
Tech Xplore: Hyundai exoskeleton aims to cut workers’ strains, will be tested in factories (2018)
Nature: Three people with spinal-cord injuries regain control of their leg muscles (2018)
IEEE Spectrum: Spinal Stimulation Enables Three People With Paraplegia to Walk Again (2018)
The Atlantic: The Pentagon’s Push to Program Soldiers’ Brains (2018)
IEEE Spectrum: One Small Step for a Paraplegic, One Big Step Toward Reversing Paralysis (2017)
IBBTimes: Iron Man-style robot exoskeleton for soldiers and factory workers in development by Hyundai (2016)
IEEE Electronics 360: Wearable Robotic Exoskeleton May Ease Rehabilitation of Lower-Limb Injuries (2016)
Papers
Nature: A brain–spine interface alleviating gait deficits after spinal cord injury in primates (2016)=
Resources
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