The world’s first mind-controlled prosthetic arm has been developed at Chalmers and Sahlgrenska Hospital. With the robotic prosthesis, the patient can operate it like a real arm, reports Göteborgs-Posten.

“It is almost as if I forget about it sometimes,” Magnus Niska, who lost his right arm 10 years ago as a result of a tumor, told Göteborgs-Posten.

Attached by a bracket at the end of the upper arm, just above where the elbow would be, this is the first of its kind. In the past, implants like this have usually been controlled by electrodes on top of the skin.

But this time the patient has had a control system implanted that connects to the skeleton and is coupled with the muscles and nerves.

“This is the first patient in the world that uses electrodes to control a hand that he uses at home and in everyday life, so it is not only in the laboratory,” said Head of technology at Chalmers, Max Ortiz Catalan to Göteborgs-Posten.

Magnus’ old prosthesis would often stop working if it got too hot or cold or if he held his arm in the wrong position.

“It is more like a real arm, it does not feel like a tool. It feels more like it is one with the body,” said Niska.

Researchers hope to develope this prosthesis so that the patient can also feel with the use of this kind of implanted control system.