New technology has enabled Matthew Nagle, who is paralyzed from the neck down, control a computer using only his thoughts!
Paralyzed from the neck down, but connected to a computer by a wire implanted into the top of his brain, he used his thoughts to draw a rudimentary circle on the video monitor, to pick up objects with a robot arm and even to play simple video games -- chatting with researchers while he did so. ...
In June 2004, doctors at Rhode Island Hospital surgically implanted through the top of Nagle's skull a pea-sized sensor that picked-up the electrical patterns of his intentions -- to move a cursor up, down, right or left -- and a wire leading to computers that decoded the signals from the brain and delivered electronic orders to the video screen.
Similarly, he could use his thoughts to cause a rubber prosthetic hand to open and close, or to manipulate a robot arm to grab a piece of candy and drop it on command. He could change the channels and control the volume of a television set.