When Medical Science And ‘Guitar Hero’ Collide

  Video games, as we know, often take an ass-whupping straight to the reputation from the media. Remember when Nintendo’s 3DS was first released a few years back, the tabloids’ paranoia about it? To read your average newspaper or craptacular article, the thing’s 3D function –no goddamn glasses or anything needed, what witchcraft was that—would melt your eyeballs right out of their sockets.  

It would drive you batshit, and prolonged playing would eventually drive you to spiderwalking down the stairs like the gal from The Exorcist. Video games are the scourge of our times; worse than Bieber or terrible quizzes being spammed on Facebook or any of that. This is what these guys are telling us.

Our children are becoming increasingly anti-social and violent, people in Internet cafes are keeling over of heart attacks after 75 straight hours on Starcraft… it’s all the fault of video games, apparently. So what we need on this Friday morning is a quick shot of optimism, a reminder that games and the tech behind them can be a force for good.

AP brings us the story of Ian Burkhart, a 24-year-old quadriplegic at the heart of some pretty darn awesome research. Though much of his body is paralyzed, Burkhart has a chip in his brain which, on his weekly visits to a lab in Ohio, allows him to temporarily ‘regain’ the use of his hands.

The experimental treatment is powered by a device that has the potential to be a lifeline for so many (‘When Burkhart is in the lab, a cable is attached to a small projection from his skull to carry signals from the sensor to a computer, which interprets what movement he is trying to accomplish. Then it sends commands to an array of up to 160 electrodes strapped to his forearm. Electrical stimulation from those electrodes activates his hand and finger muscles’).

The sight of a man playing a Guitar Hero-alike (Frets On Fire) has never meant more. Check out the full story back at the link.