Using a virtual integration environment in treating phantom limb pain.

The Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 program conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has resulted in a Virtual Integration Environment (VIE) that provides a common development platform for researchers and clinicians that design, model and build prosthetic limbs and then integrate and test them with patients. One clinical need that arose during the VIE development was a feature to easily create and model animations that represent patient activities of daily living (ADLs) and simultaneously capture real-time surface EMG activity from the residual limb corresponding to the ADLs. An application of this feature is being made by the Walter Reed Military Amputee Research Program (MARP) where they are utilizing the VIE to investigate methods of reducing upper extremity amputee phantom limb pain (PLP).

A real-time virtual integration environment for the design and development of neural prosthetic systems.

We have developed a virtual integration environment (VIE) for the development of neural prosthetic systems. The VIE is a software environment that modularizes the core functions of a neural prosthetic system--receiving signals, decoding signals and controlling a real or simulated device. Complete prosthetic systems can be quickly assembled by linking pre-existing modules together through standard interfaces. Systems can be simulated in real-time, and simulated components can be swapped out for real hardware. This paper is the first of two companion papers that describe the VIE and its use. In this paper, we first describe the architecture of the VIE and review implemented modules. We then describe the use of the VIE for the real-time validation of neural decode algorithms from pre-recorded data, the use of the VIE in closed loop primate experiments and the use of the VIE in the clinic.