The battery-driven hybrid EEG/EOG-based brain-machine interface. Solid gel electrodes – attached to a noninvasive mesh cap worn on the head – sent measurements of electric brain activity and eye movement to a computer tablet, which then translated these quantities to control signals for the robotic hand attachment. Credit: Nicola Vitiello, The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy Scientists have developed a mind-controlled robotic hand that allows people with certain types of spinal injuries to perform everyday tasks such as using a fork or drinking from a cup.
The low-cost device was tested in Spain on six people with quadriplegia affecting their ability to grasp or manipulate objects.
By wearing a cap that measures electric brain activity and eye movement the users were able to send signals to a tablet computer that controlled the glove-like device attached to their hand.
Participants in the small-scale study were able to perform daily activities better with the robotic hand than without, according to results published Tuesday in the journal Science Robotics.
The video will load shortly Surjo R. Soekadar and colleagues give a detailed visual outline of their research. Credit: Surjo R. Soekadar, Applied Neurotechnology Laboratory, Germany. 
Explore further: Getting a grip on hand function: Researchers discover spinal cord circuit that controls our ability to grasp
More information: "Hybrid EEG/EOG-based brain/neural hand exoskeleton restores fully independent daily living activities after quadriplegia," Science Robotics, robotics.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.aag3296
