Clinatec’s innovative neuroprosthesis and exoskeleton protected by eighteen patents

Clinatec’s Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) project was recently featured in The Lancet Neurology* and has appeared in the media worldwide. This groundbreaking project shows just how powerful the Clinatec model—medical doctors and technology experts working side-by-side under one roof—is at driving innovation.

The WIMAGINE® implantable medical device is the first technology brick in Clinatec’s BCI project. And, with a level of performance never seen before, WIMAGINE® is truly unique. The 64-channel system measures and digitizes brain signals and transmits them wirelessly and in real time with low noise and remarkable precision.

The algorithms used to decode the brain signals and translate them into the patient’s intentions of movement and into commands to control the exoskeleton form the second technology brick of the BCI project. These machine learning algorithms are the focus of the majority of the eighteen patents filed to protect the innovations developed as part of this project.

Last, but not least, the exoskeleton itself is built on existing technology bricks developed for prior CEA robotics programs. The battery-operated four-limb exoskeleton has two integrated computers to ensure the command-control functions. There is nothing else like it anywhere in the world.

Most of the images picked up by the media showed the patient standing. The images may not be as spectacular, but detecting the patient’s intentions of movement of the arm and wrist—eight degrees of freedom—is actually much more complicated from a technical standpoint. The BCI project has overcome these challenges and will continue to drive new advances that will help make patients’ lives better.

Contact: guillaume.charvet@cea.fr

*The research published in The Lancet Neurology was co-authored by Alim-Louis Benabid (first author) and 23 other scientists from Leti, List, and Grenoble-Alpes University Medical Center.

Facebook

Twitter