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Bionic Hands to Become a Reality Soon?
Spy der Mann writes "A highly dexterous, bio-inspired artificial hand and sensory system that could provide patients with active feeling, is being developed by a European project called cyberhand. The final prototype includes sensors for tension, force, joint angle, end stroke and contact."
Steve Austin, Luke Skywalker, and Darth Vader all sue for patent infringement.
Finally, a return to two-handed typing...
According to Popular Science, there's already a mind-controlled bionic arm out. It allows for better movement than previous prosthetic limbs as well.
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http://www.popsci.com/popsci/bown2005/personalhea
"Welcome to the future of prosthetic limbs: true mind control. For the first time ever, an amputee need only think about a movement--picking up a glass, for instance--and the 12-pound Neuro-Controlled Bionic Arm dutifully coordinates the task. Electrodes intercept the limb's residual nerve firings and feed them to a computer embedded in the forearm, which then commands six motors to move the device's shoulder, elbow and hand in unison. Thanks to hand sensors, the wearer can even gauge pressure and fine-tune his grip.
For now, the prototype arm fits just one man, Jesse Sullivan. This year, Sullivan demonstrated the device at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where doctors are working to refine it. A faster, more durable commercial version should be ready by 2008, but the ultimate goal is a robotic limb that functions as well as, if not better than, its human analogue."
It isn't as good as an arm that allows for feeling, but hey, think of what happens when a bionic arm that allows you to feel has an error. Ouchies.
If you look at history you will find that war time always sees a boon in prosthetic and other medical technologies. We are getting a LOT of soldiers coming home with missing and damaged limbs, so there is a surge in trial patients, funding and general interest. Granted this is comming from Germany, not the US.... Doctor StrangeLove anyone?
Wonder how long till someone develops bionic eyes? I've been itching to ditch these failing organic meatballs called eyes for something better. High-def bionic eyes with zoom and night-vision would be pretty cool, not to mention the possibility of using them as a way to overlay information on top of stuff you see. Getting spyware could be quite annoying though, and if law enforcement had a way of remotely disabling them would suck, but maybe one could avoid that by running OS software on them. :)