The D.A.R.T.L.A. System, -- an Overview
The idea involves a reconfiguration of two existing technologies, with very little actually new, though there are two patentable components. The result will mean that people, totally paralyzed from the waist down, will be able to regain control of their legs.
First is the Electronic Muscle Stimulator, with which you're probably familiar. In essence, what an E.M.S. does, is convert relatively tiny DC currents into muscular contractions.
The control devices currently used by E.M.S. are mindless dials controlling frequency, intensity, depth, ramp on, and ramp off. Nonetheless, it is easy to imagine that, given enough electrodes, (12 per leg should do it), and a dexterous enough manipulation of the dials available, any given muscle or muscle combination can be activated, with intensity ranging from a twitch to a full-blown cramp... all from a humble 9-volt battery in a Walkman-sized unit.
It was perhaps inevitable that researchers should try to replace the "dumb" dials with a computer program. But the computer-driven "walking" that results leaves a great deal to be desired, as computers are still many years away from being able to sense, analyze and react to the real world in real time.
Yet we each carry around a computer that does these things -- the human brain.
The problem, then, is that "the (spinal) phone lines are down," leaving us with a whiz-bang computer, muscles that are only too ready to respond to its real-time signals, but with no way to get the signals through.
What to do?
Consider the Data Glove. Developed for use in Virtual Reality, it is a glove-like garment, able to translate the movements of the hand and fingers into electrical impulses, which in turn generate an image of a moving human hand on a computer screen -- an image that can imitate, in real time, any movement of which the human hand is capable.
Now forget about the computer screen. What we have in the Data Glove is a system that transforms the movement of human muscles into entirely parallel, real-time electronic echoes. And consider the part of the body that's being echoed: the wrist, index and middle fingers are beautifully analogous to the hips and legs; for the larger muscle groups, there is a one-to-one correlation! And of course, the hand is always in direct contact with the brain.
So, we have one system, (the E.M.S.), that converts incoming electronic impulses into muscle contractions, and another, (the Data Glove), that converts muscle contractions generated by the brain into outgoing electronic impulses.
By using the outgoing impulses of the glove as the controlling impulses of a 12-electrode E.M.S., worn as a garment on the lower body, we've found a way to teach a person's legs to echo, in real time, the motions of his wrist, index and middle fingers. This returns to the brain/computer a way to contact (and thus control) the legs.
As you might imagine, there are caveats and variables to be considered, and an experimental regimen to be followed. But more on that if you've followed me so far, and have the basic concept clear in your mind.
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Other articles by the author.
His Theory G
And his practical suggestion for time travel.