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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."
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.
Zaphod, is that you?
- This message was brought to you by the Sirius Cybernetics CorporationQuantum mechanics: the dreams that stuff is made of.
I thought if I asked for something(s) unreasonable people would get it.
And the fp thing is first-post. People seem to have to point out that they 'got it'. It also totally ruins the joke I guess so does trying to explain it...
Anyway, welcome; stick around, most don't care about karma. And it's better to have karma-whores than trolls. They're generally the same attention-grubbing types, but now they're spending all that effort NOT trying to piss people off.
still waiting for the virtual-reality head.
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
I think I would want to know what those eight degrees are before signing up. I mean, if they're all the normal articulation points, plus rotations and open/closing the hand, cool. If maybe two are motion and the rest are crap like the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press and so on...well, I don't want to give an opening for these to go from Robot-arm servants to Robot-arm overlords. And letting our arms get their fair say in the media is only the first step...
Start a new "arms" race...
Very sorry, had to say it.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
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.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Ah, okay. Maybe I haven't been around here long enough to realize it :)
FYI: I don't know what you guys are talking about half the time.
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).
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.
I, for one, welcome our new karma-whoring joke-ruining overlords.
One that looks like this, in silver :)
No, it was a clear Kharma-whoring sneak-in. It's just a "joke" because he got caught. I, too, don't understand the why though. It's not like there's a number anymore, or that it's hard to get Excellent Kharma. All you gotta do is like five posts or so that people find useful.
If you think your kharma is too low, just refrain from posting unless you have something to say. Even things that are counter to the "groupthink" get modded up if they're at least one of well-written, insightful, or refrain from excessive name-calling.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
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
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.
> 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.
Yeah, it sucks for those people in NK. However, this isn't the fault of one man; it's the fault of the entire nation. If they don't like their government, it's their responsibility to change it. This isn't like Darfur or Iraq or Turkey or other places, where one group of people is oppressing a different group of people. The North Koreans are all one people living in the same place.
What can other countries do? Any invasion to "liberate" these people will just result in enormous bloodshed. NK, after all, has a huge standing army and is extremely well-armed for a ground war. The army seems to be extremely loyal to the government as well. So how do you propose disarming over a million soldiers, not to mention preventing them from firing their 11,200 pieces of artillery on South Korea or invading with their 3,800 tanks? Here's a page detailing their military strength. The threat that the DPRK presents to their peaceful neighbor to the south cannot be overstated.
Apparently, there's enough people in DPRK who are quite happy with the way things are there, otherwise things wouldn't be that bad. The only sane solution to this problem is containment. If the NK people aren't going to fix their government, then they just need to be allowed to destroy themselves from within. Eventually, with insufficient food and horrific living conditions, something will change; either the people will revolt, or they'll die out. They might go so far as to provoke a war, but if war happens, it should be their doing, not anyone else's. Plus, it's a lot easier just fighting a defensive war (repelling an invasion), rather than trying to invade and then deal with the humanitarian problems afterwards like we're seeing in Iraq.
Sorry if this sounds cold, but these people put themselves in that situation and continue to keep themselves there. I just don't have much sympathy, when they do this to themselves, and even worse, threaten their peaceful neighbors to the south with bloodshed for no good reason.
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.