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Smithsonian Features UH Engineering Professor's Research Online
By
Elena Watts
The Smithsonian magazine
The Smithsonian magazine website featured the work of Jose "Pepe" Contreras-Vidal.

The Smithsonian magazine featured the thought-controlled exoskeleton developed by UH engineering professor Jose “Pepe” Contreras-Vidal in its regular online column, “Future of Healthcare: The Innovative Spirit,” earlier this month.

For several years, Contreras-Vidal’s electrical and computer engineering research has focused on brain-machine interfaces that harness thoughts of paralyzed patients to move robotic exoskeletons, capture brain and residual muscle signals generated by amputees to control movement of prosthetic limbs, adapt brain patterns to avatar movements in virtual reality studies to restore function in paralyzed patients, and reveal patterns in brain activity associated with creating and appreciating visual and performance arts. 

All of Contreras-Vidal’s projects utilize noninvasive EEG skullcaps to capture brain activity that his computer algorithms interpret for desired results, and all of his work contributes to the broader goal established by the international scientific community to map the human brain.

Read the September 14 article on the Smithsonian magazine website for a more detailed explanation of Contreras-Vidal’s thought-controlled exoskeleton.

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