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Cybernetic Prosthetics for Amputees
A. J. Perkins writes "Returning amputees from Iraq are getting computer-driven artifical limbs allowing greater balance and mobility. These futuristic limbs have hydraulic pumps visible through its clear plastic shell. They are loaded with an on-board CPU and rechargable batteries. The Utah3 Arm, which allows simultaneous motion in the elbow, hand and wrist, offering movement old prosthetics could not. These are coupled with the SensorSpeedHand, which has electronic sensors in the fingertips that make it easier to grip objects. The C-Leg monitors motion 50 times per second to assist with balance."
Will this come in time to save us from the terrible secret of space?
I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
For people in the industry this is OLD news ... the CLeg has been around for ages.
t em.asp?id=140
... news should be new.
http://www.ottobockus.com/about/press_room_view_i
Many alternatives from different companies exist for the CLeg.
The myoelectric stuff is at least cool, but the CLeg?
Come on
Ouch
So the C-Leg helps with balance 50 times per second, eh?
Sounds like the C-Leg might be a good replacement for someone who already lost their sea legs.
Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all night...
This is good news, but you know, it doesn't put a smile on my face. If there were a story here entitled "Thousands of kids didn't lose their leg in the first place" that would make me smile.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
As with many military innovations, it will be interesting to see the future of computerized limbs when they reach the civilian population. I've met a few people with prosthetics, and devices like this would certainly help them. Despite views on war, this can only help.
The Utah3 Arm, which allows simultaneous motion in the elbow, hand and wrist, offering movement old prosthetics could not
Woohoo! Now I won't need that other battery operated prosthetic device.
I wonder if these things also make that ch-ch-ch-ch-ch noise when I bend things or jump over stuff...
Indy Media Watch-Proctologist of the Internet
hegot 2 prosthetics, a manual version and this computer version. he is using the simple clamp prosthetic 'cause the computerized version breaks too often and the batteries dont last long. The one he actually uses just has a cord that goes to his shoulder, when he wants the clamp to open, he just flexes his arm a certain way. He put his computerized arm in the closet after it keept running down..
Actually that is an interesting comment. I have often wondered about that same topic. Will people, in the distant (or maybe even near?) future volunteer to swap their human body parts for machine replacements?
If technology keeps developing at the rate it has been, how long will it be before prosthetic limbs become superior to the ones we are born with? Imagine super stong mechanical arms or legs, which are controlled through your nervous system. Imagine replacement livers and hearts and maybe even brains that are immune to disease...
Hmmm, excuse me, I think I'm going to go watch Ghost in the Shell now.
Slashdot = ((Technology + Politics) / Trolls) % Grammar Nazis
Now that miscellaneous events have succeeded in pushing the war to the back pages, with the occasional unfortunate flare-up, it's good to see stories about all the good things that war is bringing us. Freedom is on the hobble!
Everybody's a libertarian 'till their neighbour's becomes a crack house.
Yeah, parent was a troll, and yeah, this is off topic, but seeing as how I'm sitting here in Baghdad, I just want to point something out:
Nobody here who actually picks up a rifle and goes out looking for bad guys is doing it for anything other than the guys fighting beside him. Don't get yourself all worked up about how we've been duped, and lied to, etc. etc.
We know the score. We know what the real reasons for the war are. There isn't much blind flag-waving Bush-terbation here. But we don't have a choice about when and where we fight; we just have a job to do, and lives to save and take in doing it.
We don't want your pity, and we don't want you using us as martyrs in your protests against the government. We want you to leave us alone to do our jobs, and have some respect for those poor bastards who come home minus an arm or a leg or a hand.
Arr! The laws of physics be a harsh mistress!
There are 2 types of diabetes Type 1 which is sometimes also refered to as juvenile diabetes and usually strikes children. My step-son came down with it when he was 3 and it's not because he was fat slob who sat on his ass all day eating candy. Translated it wasn't preventable.
I get so sick and tired if ignorant people whining about their wimpy little Type 2 diabetes and worrying about the possibility of having to give themselves injections. My step son has been doing that for years (actually he's on an insulin pump now which is a wonderful thing). Plus the type 2 people like to try to swap war stories with my stepson (he's now 19). His body produces 0 insulin and was a real treat to deal with through puberty.
I also have an Uncle who was one of te most fit and active people I know... he came down with Type 2 diabetes when he was 60.
So let's not be spreading this "wholly preventable" FUD as it's not true in all cases.
Join the Army and Win a Chance to Become a Cyborg!
How long do you think it will it take before they run an advert like that?
They already do their best to recruit Counter-Strike players
on Gamespy! (I am not kidding!)
Anthony
--
Bellua Cyber Security Asia 2005
21-22 March - The Workshops - 23-24 March - The Conference
Mod me down as flamebait or a troll if you want, so be it, slashdot karma isn't worth glorifying the mess our great nation has ended up in due to the arrogance of a small group of people in Washington.
iRooster, the Mac OS X a
I bet that he would rather have his leg back.
SealBeater
-- Its survival of the fittest...and we got the fucking guns!!!
"Will people, in the distant (or maybe even near?) future volunteer to swap their human body parts for machine replacements?"
I wouldn't. My body is relatively self-healing, so if I mess something up it has a pretty decent chance of fixing itself to at least a functional state without outside intervention. It's a system that has functioned in billions of units for tens, if not hundreds of thousands of years.
Machines break. Electronics suffer from bad programming. Technicians might not be easily found, and if my arms stopped working I'd have a hard time fixing them myself. My arms are also submersible to fairly extreme depths, able to withstand hot and cold to a significant degree, and capable of extremely fine motor control and motion.
Body part replacements for me would be a last resort if my stock ones were failing.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
You get your leg amputated after your second tour, get an artifical leg, do rehab, then...get sent back to Iraq for tour #3?
Hopefully soldiers returning to combat after amputation have volunteered to do so. Imagine getting sent back again involunarily after losing a leg.
These soldiers deserve the best gear and care we can give them. Tragically they're not getting it, especially critical after-care, follow-ups, meds, counseling, etc. Clinics and a few hospitals are closing, and new soliders are having many medical benefits phased out because their incomes are judged to be "too high." We're not talking Generals here, we're talking folks that make under $40k a year.
Take a look at the unclassified stats for WIAs (pdf).
The problem with decent people joining the Army is the possibiltiy that they will be given jobs that a decent person would find extremely disturbing to perform.
Although this certainly isn't the first time that has been true.
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- HST
> Instead of having our own soldiers getting blown up themselves up in Humvees and on foot with mindfields and heralding better prosthetics, why not retrofit some Asimos with killing capabilities and send them instead of human soldiers?
Or <StarTrek>just simulate the war on a computer and have the designated casualties report to the disintegration center.</StarTrek>
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
So... war is a job?
I'm struggling for an answer here. The death of Iraqi civilians in this war roughly equals the deaths brought by the Indian Ocean tsunami. Any serious analysis of the "real reasons" for this war inevitably comes back to oil and money.
And people who find this war looking remarkably like a war of conquest and colonialisation, who find that loss of life and limb is better prevented at source rather than with gee-whiz technologies... we're told to shut up and let the soldiers get on with their "jobs"?
I'm full of respect for professional soldiers who risk their lives to protect civilian populations from the tyranny of oppression.
But you, sir, you are part of the oppression, and job or not, you are responsible for your acts.
Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
All I can say, is shame on this administration.
Now please, don't get me wrong. We in the field are enjoying the publicy and the chance to show off the advancements of the past fews years. And yes, the advancements in prosthetics technology are slow due to funding and lack of research. But what I'm more concerned about is the need for people like me in this war.
Honestly, when this war began many of us in the industry recieved notices about new patients arriving in as new amputees and we were being asked to write manuals for surgery procedures that are archaic! And endorse the use of out-dated concepts.
It's appauling the way these troops are being handled. They are not recieving optimal surgeries such as the ERTL procedure. Nor are they all recieving C-legs and Utah-arms. Do you have any idea how much these costs?! No. Not every solider will be getting one and if they did, watch your insurance rates skyrocket. It's just not realistic.
All I'm saying is that, thank you for the publicity but you are being lied to. This is not what is honestly happening at clinics. This is a poster pin up to make you feel better about the war and the injuries.
Now get yourself injured badly enough then you get medical discharge if the military cannot find some sort of lighter duty for you to do to finish out your time.
Its going to be a *LONG* time before this happens.
Regardless of how superior they get, its still going to be a pain in the ass just to attach them, let alone all the other biologicals problems that have little to do with the machine.
I have a degenerative disease that is killing a few joints and I've been told I'll probably have to have my knee replaced if I don't stop abusing it (at this point, abusing it means riding my biked 20 - 30 miles a week in the summer -- and thats down from the 100 I had been doing, and I'm *STILL* a light weight compared to most of the folks I know who bike on a regular occasion).
Anywho, a good friend works at the VA and draws my blood for me regularly and while I'm there, I occasionally get to talk with some of the veterans...over the last year, they have increasingly been younger guys my age and now a days, I almost look clean cut enough to fit in without one of the administrators getting upset that she's doing this (even though its always on her break, lest someone accuses me of helping steal from the US Gov).
But after talking with one amputee, I'll never want to even joke about the prostesises again. For the CLeg, ya have to have your leg blown off from above the knee (actually I learned that from Doonsbury), but they also say that there is a nasty bone graft you have to go through to attach it. it always gets infected because even though its titanium, its still wearing against the bone in a way that can't be stopped. Secondly, you will always have an open wound -- the skin in this area is not meant to simply pucker up around something sticking out of it. Think of any naturally occuring holes in youy body and think of how it goes from regular skin to something that is a little more sealable. Ya don't have that with this. So, expect infections in this all the time too.
I was joking with the one guy I met that it would make my life much easier but was given a reality check quickly. Given the rate of decay on my knee, I'll probably have to have something replaced in the next 5 to 10 years (maybe longer if I felt like sitting at home and wasting my life), but I think I'll skip the prostesis for the moment and just see if they can replace the bones and joints -- something simple. I have no doubt that replacement arms or legs will be superior to the parts coming off, but until we get the rest of the parts they have to connect with upgraded (maybe just the brain in a jar), I think I'm only going to look at this as technology to be used in unavoidable circumstances.
While these developments are quite good, I think the best would be biological replacements. Is there any development in that area?
On the other hand, I wonder if these replacements have any use in making the wearer of it stronger than with the (original) biological component.
see a Text Widget
From TFA: "I think I killed over 20 people," he said. "You could see them, through your scope, 40 meters away, get hit by your bullet. Later in the day you thought, wow, I just killed someone. But it's not like they're innocent."
Instead of an artificial leg, they should have given him a new brain.
Yes, call me a troll, or say I'm OT. But I can't stand these abused sentences any more. You killed somebody, for heaven's sake! It's not like YOU are innocent at all. And you thought "wow"?
World isn't UT2004, ya' know.
42.
Here's a link to the website of the company that makes the Utah Arm 3: http://www.utaharm.com/products.htm.