Paralysed man takes walk in virtual world

A paralyzed man using only his brain waves has been able to manipulate a virtual internet character, Japanese researchers said on Monday calling it a world first.

The 41 year old used his imagination to make his character take a walk and chat to another virtual person on the popular Second Life web site.

The patient, who has suffered paralysis for more than 30 years, can barely bend his fingers due to a progressive muscle disease so cannot use a mouse or key board.

In the experiment, he wore headgear with three electrodes monitoring brain waves related to his hands and legs.Though he cannot move his legs, he imagined that his character was walking. He was then able to converse with the other character using an attached microphone, said the researchers at Japan’s KeioUniversity.

It is the first time a paralysis patient has succeeded in meeting a person and having a conversation in an Internet virtual world.

Researchers are now studying a system that would let patients create text messages by mentally selecting certain letters, said an associate professor at the KeioUniversity’s faculty of Science and Technology, a member of the team.