cohen van balen's "phantom recorder"

By sarahendren

Jun 9, 2013

A man sits in a chair; he has one biological arm, and one arm fitted with a balloon-and-straw prosthetic, attached to CPUs. A computer monitor, close by, provides a read-out of data.

Cohen Van Balen is a design partnership I’ve been admiring for some time. I’m only now posting one of their projects here—The Phantom Recorder :

“The Phantom Recorder system projects a cold and damp sensation onto the skin surface, triggering the brain to hallucinate a phantom. As the phantom movement stimulates the peripheral nerves, its activity is captured by the neural implant and external wireless machinery.”

A side view close up of the balloon-and-straw arm fitting.

“A novel peripheral nerve interface allows regenerating axons to grow into microchannels, incorporating embedded electrodes. This neural implant enables sensations to be inserted to the device, or for activity to be recorded from movements. Could we use this technology to record illusions of the mind? What if our imagination could be captured through our nerves?”

An axon regeneration implant diagram, showing the workings of the prosthetic.

More at Cohen Van Balen. Thanks, Rob.