Slashdot Mirror
Clever Artificial Hand Developed
AccUser writes "The BBC is reporting that scientists have developed an ultra-light limb that they claim can mimic the movement in a real hand better than any currently available. Researcher Dr Paul Chappell, a medical physicist who worked on the device, said, 'With this hand you can clutch objects such as a ball, you can move the thumb out to one side and grip objects with the index finger in the way you do when opening a lock with a key, and you can wrap your fingers around an object in what we call the power grip - like the one you use when you hold a hammer or a microphone.'"
Image here
Dr Paul is now Dr Pauline after some over-enthusiastic power grip testing...
For those of you who have had their hands severed by their father, relief has come!
DxBlog - It's where you want to be
and you can wrap your fingers around an object in what we call the power grip - like the one you use when you hold a hammer or a microphone.
Well, that's the only criteria I'm looking for in an artificial hand... I do a lot of... you know... karaoke.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
"'With this hand you can clutch objects such as a ball, [...] and you can wrap your fingers around an object in what we call the power grip"
Oh c'mon You're making the jokes too easy for us!
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
There are plenty of robot hands that are far better than this. e.g. #1 e.g. #2.
DROS - Open-Source Robot Software
I wonder how well someone could type with this hand though, am sure that hunting and pecking would work fine, but since this is controlled by the muscles in the arm, not so sure how efficient typing might be with this hand...
One way to accessorize this hand might be to encase it in a skin toned covering, to more realistically mimic a human hand, and at least to not be so ovbious as this hand is...
Overall this looks like a good step forward in prosthetics... soon people who are unfortunate enough to lose a limb, will be able to lead more normal lives... this is wonderful.
Need a Nerd?
Nerd Systems
Isn't this old news? Luke had one of these by the end of Empire and that came out in 1980!
Furthermore, the events depicted in star wars happened "A long time ago" so they must be even older than that.
RTFA: The new hand - called the Southampton Remedi-Hand - can be connected to muscles in the arm via a small processing unit and is controlled by small contractions of the muscles which move the wrist.
Wouldn't it be better to just give the patients mutant psychokinetic powers so they can levitate objects wherever they want? Oh I'm sorry, were you talking about things which can *actually* be achieved in the forseeable future?
Aside from your solution being squarely in the realm of science fiction at the moment, while folks need hands now, people with disabilities don't want to screamed at every time they look down that they're something other than human (they get that enough from other people, sad but true). The hand is an assistive technology, true, but the goal should be that it "just works" and does so as unobtrusively as possible, so that it doesn't stick out any more than, say, glasses, contacts, cochlear implants, or hearing aids. Having your hand appear the consistency of frying eggs when attempting to pick up your glass at dinner time does not fulfill this important design goal.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Interesting that you include hearing aids in that list. I've wondered about this for a few years, on and off (I really should get out more), but while glasses have become fashion items, and people with good eyesight will use glasses to help them further (eg sunglasses), you don't see people using hearing aids unless they really have to!
I have partial hearing loss and wouldn't even think of using a hearing aid, but anyone with slightly wonky eyes will get themselves some glasses.
How about hearing aids for people with good hearing, for use at the cinema or theatre, that would filter out the dim-wits with their mobile phones and packets of crisps?
How about a device to wear at the Pub which can allow you to filter out the background noise and actually hear, and converse with, your friends?
I reckon there's a long way to go before hearing aids can be mentioned in the same sentence as glasses!
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
I spent ages trying to think of sig, but never did
... and what about some sense of fashion for hearing aids?
You could make some with white ear buds, connect them to a white amplifier box with a circle on the front, and you'd be as flash as a rat with a gold tooth...
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
'The power grip will be mostly used to crush human sculls.' Dr Paul Chappell added.
Fight Frist Psoting!
Browse Slashdot with 'Newest First'!
It's not the hand, or motor/servo, or interface that needs improving, it's the Power Source ! Without long-lasting (much better than iPod!) batteries, this technology will go nowhere. I did research in prosthetics back in '75 and won quite a few awards and acclaim for the work, but had the same problem. One solution that was presented back then, but not much work has been done on it since, is a blood-powered fuel cell. It is implanted in the body and derives power from sugar and oxygen. Next best thing would be a pee-powered battery (grin).
Chaos maximizes locally around me.