“It seems like an old dream come true with this development,” announced Dieter Devlaminck of the internal medicine department, and Bart Wyns of the automation department. “Since the invention of the microchip, man has fantasised about the so-called ‘cyborg’, an amalgam of man and machine. What used to look like science fiction is coming more and more to resemble reality.” Like the Mind Speller at the Catholic University of Leuven, the Ghent apparatus involves a swim cap-looking device equipped with electrodes that pick up and analyse brain waves, which are then translated into a set of commands for the robot arm.

The technique can also be used on any other mechanical apparatus, such as a wheelchair. One of the most obvious applications is prosthetic limbs that wearers can operate using brain power, in much the same way that we operate our organic limbs.