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We’ve seen robotic hands controlled by brainwaves before, but not one that lets you actually sense what it’s gripping too. For the first time ever, surgeons are going to attempt to hook a bionic hand directly into a man’s nervous system so he can actually feel the hand’s skin sensors. Luke Skywalker eat your heart out.
The hand will be hooked directly into the patient’s median and ulnar nerves in his arm, allowing him to both control the hand via thought like he would a real hand, and feel the skin sensors on the hand too. It will mark the first time a prosthetic appendage has provided real-time sensory feedback on things like grip strength, or pain, which would be a massive step forward for cyborg limbs.
The prototype hand will be hooked up to the amputee’s arm for a month, where the ability to use and adapt to the hand will be monitored before putting the thing into production. If it works as well as the scientists behind it think it should, it could mean that a robotic hand could soon be a viable real-life hand-like replacement, or hell, an enhancement. Who doesn’t want a robotic hand like Skywalker’s? [Independent]
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That tech’s thousands of years old
and far, far away
As long as the patient doesn’t have the same surgeon I had when I severed my ulnar nerve and vein, he/she should be OK. 14 years and counting and still not got full feeling back.
Here’s a question for everyone, very much in the same vein as Sam’s final comment, and something I’ve asked myself a few times since a motorbike accident I had in 2010.
Essentially I’ll never walk without a limp again, but the rest of my foot is fine and gives me little pain when not in use. If a bionic replacement was made available that did a better job and removed the limp I would consider having my foot replaced.
If that bionic replacement was good enough how damaged would your foot/hand/arm/leg need to be before you’d lop it off and get the upgrade?
As an extension of this, if the replacements were better than the original would you consider lopping off a fully working appendage and getting the bionic version? What would it take for you to consider it? What would the replacement need to be capable of?
Personally I don’t think I could just get rid of something I’ve spent 25 odd years growing, I can hardly bear to throw out old T-shirts, let alone bodyparts! They’d need to give me the ability to punch through walls or something.
Hmmm… I’d replace the foot to lose the limp if I’m guaranteed perfection and no pain, I wouldn’t replace a fully working appendage to get the bionic version UNLESS it was a full on body replacement (think Data from Star Trek The Next Generation) but with my brain in.
Basically I’d be doing it for the increased lifespan as I’d really like to see what the next few hundred years will bring (alternatively I’ll be a vampire (once again for the longevity (if you can use that phrase with an undead creature)).
(Wondering if that makes me weird)
There is one coming very soon, and it was an experimental military drone called “The Prototype”
I asked my fiancee if she’d download her brain onto a machine with me if given the opportunity. She said no, so unfortunately I’m limited to only this lifetime, but I’d love to see what we do in the next few hundred years. Even as just a spectator.
Bragging rights.
Have you played Deus Ex: Human Evolution? If not, look it up.
I have not. I will!