After a traffic accident in 2004, 36-year-old Nathan Copeland was paralyzed from the chest down, unable to move and feel any limb. In 2014, he participated in a study at the University of Pittsburgh for people with major spinal cord injuries, hoping to see if his method of the brain-computer interface could restore some function.
Copeland had surgery without hesitation, even if he had to undergo brain surgery. The pencil eraser-sized implant placed in his brain after the surgery in 2015 changed his life. Thanks to the electrode array that streamlines brain impulses, the computer can play video games and control external equipment, such as a robotic arm it can think and move.
He has been using the system that is said to be used for five years without any problems for seven years.
The system Copeland used, deceived as BrainGate, consists of an array implanted in the brain, 100 tiny needles in the skull, each about a millimeter long, covered with a conductive metal and arranged in a square grid. This system connects neurological signals to an external device with a cable and works with a computer with software to activate these signals.
When the system was first installed, no one, including Copeland, knew exactly how long the device would run, and they thought it would last for a maximum of five years. It was also based on experiments in monkeys during this given five-year period because no human had ever used this system before. However, it turned out to be contrary to what was said, and Copeland has been using this system for seven years without any problems, playing games and controlling his tablet.
After installing the first device in 2015, Copeland began using four more active implants and three more as part of the research. Saying that he is aware that his implants may stop working one day and that he does not let life flow and think about bad things, Copeland explained that if there is a new development, he can still have surgery and go all over the world for this.
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