VOA常速英语2019--瘫痪男子靠意念控制机器人行走（在线收听）

Robotic Skeleton Links with Brain of Paralyzed Man; Lets Him Walk

This man’s life has changed when he was 28 years old, a fall paralyzed him from the shoulders down. Now his life has again changed with the help of a robotic Exoskeleton.Since the 1950s, people have been promising to make paralyzed people walk. It’s really one of the goals of medical science. Dr. Tom Shakespeare is a professor of disability at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Shakespeare himself, a paraplegic offered details of the study published in the lancet neurology journal. Implants at either side of the skull were able to detect and translate into as it were computer movement, impulses of the brain,so that the individual wished to move and signals were sent enabling them to move. Shakespeare says controlling the machine through thought instead of say pushing a joystick on a wheelchair is a scientific breakthrough. It’s never been done from the brain controlling all four limbs, so that’s exciting for this domain of research. This is the brain thinking. I wish to reach out for that item. He says that even though brain waves move a machine instead of the person’s own body, the technology is still cost prohibitive. Yeah, this wheelchair that I sit in designed for me cost two thousand pounds. And what we need to do is to make this sort of technology which transforms lives available to more people in the developing world. Shakespeare says the technology of this Exoskeleton still has a long way to go before it can surpass even the voice commands of modern appliances.

在这个男人二十八岁的时候，他的生活发生了翻天覆地的变化，一次高处坠落使他从肩部以下全部瘫痪。如今在外骨骼机器人的帮助下，他的生活再次发生了变化。自二十世纪五十年代以来，人们一直承诺让瘫痪的人能够行走。这真的是医学科学的目标之一。汤姆·莎士比亚博士是伦敦卫生与热带医学院的一名残疾教授。莎士比亚本人是一位截瘫患者，他在《柳叶刀神经病学》杂志上提供了这项研究的细节。位于头骨两侧的植入物能够检测信号并将其转化为计算机监测的运动，即大脑脉冲，于是如果患者想要移动，就可以发送信号使自己完成移动。莎士比亚说，通过思维来控制机器，而不用在轮椅上推操纵杆，这是一项科学突破。从来没有大脑控制四肢移动的案例，所以这对于这个研究领域来说是非常令人兴奋的。这是用大脑在思考。我想要去拿那件东西。他说，即使脑电波移动的是机器而不是人自己的身体，这项技术的成本仍然高得令人难以承受。我坐的这个轮椅是专门为我设计的，花费了两千英镑。我们需要做的就是让更多发展中国家的人们可以使用这种可以改变生活的技术。莎士比亚说，这种外骨骼技术要想超越现代电器的语音控制技术，还有很长的路要走。