| SURGEONS are preparing to create the first husband
and wife cyborgs: they intend to implant computer chips in a
British professor and his wife to see if they can communicate
sensation and movement by thought alone.
The professor hopes it will show how two brains can interact;
doctors at Stoke Mandeville hospital, who will perform the
surgery, hope it will lead to new treatments for paralysis
victims.
In the experiment Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at
Reading University, and his wife, Irena, will have silicon chips
about 2in long implanted in their arms just above the elbow.
Each chip will also have a power source, a tuner and a radio
transceiver. They will be surgically connected to nerve fibres
in the couple's arms.
The signals from Warwick will be converted to radio waves and
transmitted to a computer which will re- transmit them to the
chip in Irena. Warwick believes that when he moves his own
fingers, his brain will also be able to move Irena's.
They may even be able to communicate anger and excitement,
because emotions also stimulate nerve activity. "It is like
putting a plug into the nervous system," said Warwick.
"If I move my left index finger by sending signals to
move the muscles, those signals will also be transmitted to
Irena's nervous system. We know the signal is transmissable. The
question is whether it will be recognised in the same way by
Irena."
The signal could reach Irena's brain as well as her fingers.
Not surprisingly she is wary, "I have mixed feelings
because I'm worried about the operation, being under an
anaesthetic," she said. "On the other hand, it is
exciting." Apart from the novelty and excitement, she does
not want her husband to be "linked up to another
woman".
Ali Jamous, the surgeon who will lead the operation on the
couple, says the technology may one day help people who are
paralysed by spinal cord damage. "The nerves in the leg
below the lesion are still working but cannot make contact with
the brain," he said. "If we could transmit that signal
from one side of the lesion to the other, you could bypass the
break."
With Warwick he aims to connect both motor and sensory nerves
to the chip in the hope that signals from one or both will prove
transmissable. "It should work because the basic science is
good," he said.
Ian Pearson, who studies emerging technologies for British
Telecom, says several centres are researching cyborgs: "The
aim is to control computers and other equipment through direct
links to the brain. It is control by thought and I know the
military are very interested."
At Massachusetts Institute of Technology in America, cyborg
research is concentrated mainly on wearable computers. These can
be set in clothing fabric like a printed circuit, or worn as a
pair of spectacles that can project images onto the eye.
However, Warwick, who hopes to undergo the operation in
September, believes he is in the vanguard: "I think we have
a window of a few months and we will be the first."
Provided he does not fall out with his wife.
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