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DARPA's Artificial Arm Comes With VR Training
An anonymous reader writes "The first prototype of an artificial limb commissioned by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency can reportedly be controlled naturally, provide sensory feedback and allows for eight degrees of freedom — way beyond the current state of the art for prosthetic limbs. Oh yeah, it also has its own VR environment to learn how to use it."
I always heard talk of a 3rd arm, now I can get one.
But where should I put it?
If you think I'm funny, mod me insightful so I get the karma points. or underrated because most people won't notice I didn't write fp!
cost me a leg?
:)
*wonk wonk wonk*
*eyes rolling all around the world*
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
There are probably a few geeks out there considering amputating their own arm so they getting one of these prosthetics to play with.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
...I think I saw this, though, on the ESB.
Call me cynical, but it is possible that companies making *very* expensive, prosthetic limbs for the Defense Department that happens to have many, MANY soldiers coming back missing limbs, that the companies involved with making these things could be considered one of the defense contractors that are pretty happy about the current war-happy administration?
That would be disturbing.
I don't respond to AC's.
Someone's going to hack this thing and put linux on it, probably the OpenWRT or NSLU2-Linux guys.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Will the VR environment help you play doom?
Will it be programmed to prevent the wearer from going on a shooting rampage?
If the wearer uses it to masturbate, does they violate any laws?
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Start a new "arms" race...
Very sorry, had to say it.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
I have an artificial leg for the last 11 years. (It was amputated when I was 12 because of bone cancer.) Talking to the doctor when He was fitting me for my newest model, I learned that development is speeding up again because of more income. Insurance companies are afraid to say "no" to more technically sophisticated (read expensive) artificial limbs with all of the returning soldiers. Insurance companies either get overly stingy or give too much. It's during periods like this that I should get a new model made.
I am happy with my handy dandy new cleg. I just wish I didn't get the feeling that I have to out think the CPU sometimes. It's taken about 8 months to not walk like a total retard, but I still haven't gotten to the point where people don't look at me funny. On the bright side, I can do roller blading and ice skating with this knee. That is a great way to pick up chicks along with my sexy leopard print socket.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
would be a virtual circle jerk?
http://www.neurotechreports.com/pages/darpaprosthe tics.html
Another notable investment by DARPA is 18.1 million invested in DEKA, led in part by Dean Kamen. Dean showed a video of their current work at the FIRST Robotics Championship earlier this month. It's pretty neat, but is primarily a mechanical design, with the goal of accurate control in gripping and doing every day things (wipe your nose with the back of your hand, even). The video shown was of a prototype that was remotely controlled (as opposed to being a machine-nerve interface or whatnot).
Soldiers everywhere are taking up arms at the development of this new prosthesis.
http://www.ottobock.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-3F574DD1- 4F9E32A8/ob_com_en/hs.xsl/384.html
The biggest *practical* problem is not sensoring or the number of degrees but battery lifetime vs. size and weight.
Otto Bock hands are outstanding in energy efficiency and miniaturization.
The dominate the market with outstanding technology for over 30 years. (nerve sensors to direct the hand were invented 30 years ago by them; 'MyoBock')
They incorporate the world smallest automatic gearbox (patented).
http://www.google.at/patents?id=oAUiAAAAEBAJ&dq=ed uard+horvath
http://www.google.at/patents?id=0dAmAAAAEBAJ&dq=ed uard+horvath
http://www.google.at/patents?id=nHsPAAAAEBAJ&dq=ed uard+horvath
http://www.google.at/patents?id=SDc3AAAAEBAJ&dq=ed uard+horvath
I'm married to an amputee, and I am not happy with the current administration's use of my tax dollars going to the other side of the world to cause a ruckus. It's nice that the government is finally supporting work in this area. It's one good outcome from this ill-conceived war.
The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
Luke Skywalker's replacement right duelling hand. Optional black glove accessory. Lightsaber not included.
Karma police, arrest this man. He talks in math. He buzzes like a fridge. He's like a detuned radio.
When you're lookin' to become a razorguy, chummer.
One that looks like this, in silver :)
Think about it guys... Why would DARPA go sepnding dollars on fixing up broken soldiers? The military has a long history of NOT caring for it's returned soldiers, do you think that they've suddenly had a change of heart?
;)
This is about robotic soldiers, remote controlled. No point having your best soldiers get shot at when they can sit in the comfort of a bunker with a VR helmet on, controlling a bot that's in China/Iran/Choose your enemy.
Same theory as UAV's, just more destructive
If it has eight degrees of freedom or whatever, it'd be neat if it had a USB port so while you were asleep you could rent it out to do CNC work, have it do your homework, feed the cat, tidy your room etc. Step right up folks. See the human XY plotter. Dang you could carve good statues! Eventually if they become common enough we might see them available on eBay "second hand". Who's that sponsoring the development? The "army"?
have less wars.
Metal Gear is about to become real!
I like the use of the hyphenated "demon-strated" in the article...
"During clinical evaluation of the limb at RIC, Jesse Sullivan, a patient of Dr. Kuiken, demon-strated substantial improvements in functional testing,".
It conjures up images of some kind of Doom-esque cyber-demon stomping around and firing off rocket grenades from his arm....
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Ah, if only men like Kim Jong-Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would give up their crazy attention-whoring antics, then your solution would be acceptable. Did you know that North Koreans are so starved for food that some have stooped to cannibalism? But the current regime is embarrassed by this, so anyone caught participating in cannibalism is executed. People like to joke about George Bush and "1984", but Kim Jong-Il makes Bush look like a puppy dog. The North Koreans also experiment with poison gas on political dissidents and their families. Far too many reports of this horrible practice exist for us to dismiss them as false, yet the world continues to ignore the plight of the North Korean people. Shame on organizations like the UN for allowing this to happen right in front of them. They wag their collective finger at us for rightly ignoring a backwards treaty like Kyoto, but they remain silent in the face of true evil like what is going on in North Korea. They remain silent because to do otherwise would mean they would be forced to take decisive action. Fuck them for their spinelessness. I suspect that if only the media would tell the people then the people would demand action. But alas, the real political decisions take place behind closed doors while the rest of us are distracted with fluff stories of the latest person to be dismissed from "American Idol" and how bad CO2 emissions are going to destroy all human life within 50 years.
Looking at him hurts my eyes. Everything he's ever made with the exception of "Pulp Fiction" is a steaming pile of shit. Even "Pulp Fiction" is borderline, though.
P.S. - Fuck Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and their slandering strong-arm tactics. Anyone remember Al Sharpton and the Tawana Brawley incident? Notice any similarities between Sharpton's actions then and his actions towards the Duke lacrosse team? Will he apologize to the lacrosse team? Hell no. Will the media let it slide because he's black? Hell yes. Gotta love white guilt and self-loathing.
Dean Kamen (who also brought us the Segway) was showing this off in Atlanta. Currently, it's like a remote. One guy wears a sensory "exo-arm" whose movements are copied by the robotic arm. It's kind of laggy and there's no sensory feedback, but allows for some pretty precise and complex movements.
What they haven't done yet is allow a person who is missing an arm to actually control it. That's the hard part. Dean just did the mechanics of it.
If they based the VR on Six Million Dollar Man reruns, the guy will rip his shoulder out.
Here's a much better article. That blog submitted by the op was cut and pasted rather poorly.
Innervation is the key to making this stuff work right. If they can hook up enough sensory and motor nerves to these prosthetic limbs, they will come to feel like a part of the body, though the nervous system may need to adjust itself a bit.
I would expect that the ultimate solution will be a biological limb grown from the patient's own stem cells. Nerve hook-up will still be a major issue, because we don't yet know how to repair severed axons, but perhaps stem cells will take care of that issue as well. Goodbye, paralysis and multiple sclerosis and Lou Gehrig's Disease!
it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
Dean Kamen (partnered with DARPA) showed us a video of this arm piggy backed on a test subject hooked to a computer when we were at the FIRST Robotics Championships in Atlanta, Georgia.
I have to say, it's one of the coolest things I've ever seen
> The first prototype of an artificial limb can be controlled naturally, provide
> sensory feedback and allows for eight degrees of freedom -- way beyond the current
> state of the art for prosthetic limbs
Ooooh! I wonder how it does for repetitive, gentle but firm motions?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
As more and more money gets funneled through DARPA/DoD for all this stuff, you have to wonder where we'll be in a few years. Will there be more cheap prosthetics for all to use? Will they become cheap enough to become hackable?
I know what I'd want if I lost my arm - a prosthetic with a USB port. Seriously. Why train yourself to type with the new arm when you could just train yourself to tickle the pins on an I/O port - especially if it has feedback.
Actually, I was hoping to get a leg that makes Star Wars light saber sound effects. It would be so dramatic walking.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.