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"Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not."
- Isaac Asimov

Cybernetic Brain  
  An artificial brain to control the movements of an prosthetic leg using nerve impulses.  

As far as I know, the earliest use of "cybernetic brain". The term "cybernetics" was coined by Norbert Wiener in his book "Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine," published in 1948.

Dr. Schmidt lifted an object from the box. Larry stared, astonished.

It was an artificial leg, so cleverly and so artfully designed that it could hardly be told from a real one. Dr. Schmidt handed it to Larry. “Feel it,” he said, beaming, “it’s made of plastic and titanium. It doesn’t weigh very much.”

Larry hefted the incredibly real contraption. To the touch, it felt as if it were made of human flesh. Its lightness was due to its being made of titanium, a metal as strong as steel, but much lighter. Its upper portion carried a web strap-and-belt arrangement for attaching, to the thigh.

Larry peered into the hollow leg, Dr. Schmidt handed him a flashlight. There was a complex arrangement of levers and racks and Larry could see them move as he flexed the leg at the knee and at the foot.

“This is wonderful,” he breathed staring at it admiringly.

“Show him the brain, Doctor," Joanne interrupted, “That will really startle him!”


(Cybernetic Brain from 'The Cybernetic Brain')

Dr. Schmidt reached in the wooden box and brought out a metal chassis similar to a small radio. Mounted on it were several tubes, coils and transformers. It was not very impressive. He set it on his desk.

“Larry,” he said, now grave, “if this will do what I think it will, it will be the greatest invention of the time. It is an auxiliary brain!”

“ — and we fit this little electronic brain and amplifier in the hollow of the leg, connect its output to certain servo-motors and relays within the leg. Into the input of the brain we connect nerve-endings from your thigh! The power supply comes from built-in batteries and electric capacitor-accumulators. In the bottom of the foot-portion of the leg is mounted a pressure sensitive device which will help control the leg — which will tell the brain and your body, when you are, dividing the weight between the real leg and the artificial one.”

“Am I to understand,” Larry asked incredulously, “that you’re actually going to connect my nervous system to a mechanical amplifier?”

"[Dr. Clydestone] will bring out the desired nerve endings from the end of the stump. He’ll connect them through platinum wires to little cable connectors... to seven nerve-endings protruding from his flesh, terminating, in ordinary electrical connections!"

But it was not the leg itself which was the real impressive agent; rather it was the electronic brain and the servo-mechanisms servicing it. Servomechanisms were simply electric or hydraulic motors whose motion was precisely controlled from a distance by electronic means.

The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg. It might be said that the artificial leg was a robot. Larry laughed at the thought. He was going to be actually made up of part-man, part-robot when the leg was finally fitted to him. But it was better by far than using the crude prosthetic devices ordinarily employed.

Dr. Schmidt had already designed every necessary mechanism for creating an artificial automatic, electro-mechanical, cybernetic leg.

Technovelgy from The Cybernetic Brain, by Charles Recour.
Published by Fantastic Adventures in 1949
Additional resources -

There was a fine denouement:

“Could I have been right? Was the leg alive?”

Larry laughed: He squeezed her close to him. “I know how terrible it was for you honey, but don’t even think about it. I assure you — it wasn’t alive.”

Joanne made a face of disgust. “Ugh,” she said emphatically, “it’s hard to get out of my mind.”

“Don’t think about it,” Larry advised tenderly, "forget all about such things as cybernetic brains — think about me.”

“I will,” Joanne promised softly, “I will."

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Cybernetic Brain
  More Ideas and Technology by Charles Recour
  Tech news articles related to The Cybernetic Brain
  Tech news articles related to works by Charles Recour

Cybernetic Brain-related news articles:
  - Bluetooth-Enabled Robot Legs Talk To Each Other
  - These Robot Legs Are Made For, Well, Walking

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