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Huge Leap Forward In Robotic Limb Replacement

Posted by kdawson on from the arms-and-the-man dept.

BlueshiftVFX sends us to Wired for some video of the impressive, mind-controlled prosthetic robot arm invented by Dean Kamen. "Kamen's arm, dubbed 'Luke' (after Skywalker, I assume), is an incredibly sophisticated bit of engineering that's lightyears ahead of the clamping 'claws' that many amputees are forced to use today. The arm is fully articulated, giving the user the same degrees of movement as a natural arm, and is sensitive enough to pick up a piece of paper, a wineglass, or even a grape without mishap."

26 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Woo... by Izabael_DaJinn · · Score: 5, Funny
    You guys should be excited. Think about what this will do for the pen1s enlarg3m3nt industry.

    Not only would they be "fully articulated" in the bedroom they would also be "sensitive enough" to pick up flowers & wine beforehand.

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    Careful What You Wish For....
    1. Re:Woo... by LrdDimwit · · Score: 3, Funny

      Perhaps it's just me, but I am generally using other body parts to pick up the flowers and the wine.

  2. More appropriate headline by s4m7 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dean Kamen is Finally Back to Inventing Useful Things

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    This comment is fully compliant with RFC 527.
    1. Re:More appropriate headline by bfl · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Invented by Dean Kaman is a bit of an exaggeration. The arm is the result of a DARPA project overseen by Deka, and involving a laundry list of partners including the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the University of New Brunswick. See here for the UNB page about the project.

    2. Re:More appropriate headline by RsG · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why would you assume that?

      I mean first up, why the insurance industry? Second, what makes you think anyone has the clout to repress this sort of technology?

      Robot limbs that operate at or near the human level have a multitude of uses beyond just prosthetics. Offhand, I can think of hazardous material handling, remote surgery, bomb disposal, space exploration - basically anywhere you want a human hand, and don't want the mess that comes with having a warm body in the immediate area.

      If you're right, and the potential to build just such a device has existed for years, then everyone from NASA to the nuclear industry would be all over it. Against that, those pissants in insurance don't stand a chance.

      Plus, there's a fairly strong military interest in the prosthetic angle. There are plenty of war-vet amputees who'd benefit, giving DARPA both a practical and a PR benefit if they demonstrated a working model.

      I just don't see it happening yet. Note the "leap forward" phrasing - this is still below the level of a bionic hand that can adequately replace the flesh and blood version. We're nowhere near the star wars/bionic man level. I mean, we'll get there, and probably within my lifetime and yours, but stuff like nerve-computer connections and effective tactile senses are still in their infancy.

      --
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  3. :-( Insurance by lantastik · · Score: 5, Informative

    I can't tell you how excited I would be if any insurance company on the planet would actually pay for this. I have a friend who lost his left arm fighting in the name of our country. So far three different insurance carriers have all denied him any kind of advanced prosthetic. It's sad...

    1. Re::-( Insurance by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I can't tell you how excited I would be if any insurance company on the planet would actually pay for this. I have a friend who lost his left arm fighting in the name of our country. So far three different insurance carriers have all denied him any kind of advanced prosthetic. It's sad... Are you in the US? If he was in the military, why is he dealing with insurance carriers at all?

      And are you saying he has triple coverage through three different companies?

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      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re::-( Insurance by s4m7 · · Score: 5, Informative

      If he was in the military, why is he dealing with insurance carriers at all?

      Yes because VA hospitals are great and there's always room in them. They just hand out whatever care you want because you Served Your Country.

      No seriously the republicans just blocked the expansion of VA benefits.

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      This comment is fully compliant with RFC 527.
    3. Re::-( Insurance by mazarin5 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Hell, my father is just now getting treatment for problems caused by his stint in Vietnam!

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      Fnord.
    4. Re::-( Insurance by couchslug · · Score: 5, Informative

      "I have a friend who lost his left arm fighting in the name of our country. So far three different insurance carriers have all denied him any kind of advanced prosthetic. It's sad..."

      I'm a vet and I smell trollage. "name of our country" - WTF?? Branch of service would do for a start.

      No private carrier would even be involved with a combat injury, and actual denial of care would be grounds
      for calling up the VA chain of command with a parallel chat with local and state elected officials. The VA has
      screwed up but there are plenty of folks willing to raise a stink in behalf of a legit claim. Join the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) and the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) for a start.

      --
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    5. Re::-( Insurance by lantastik · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm a vet and I smell trollage. "name of our country" - WTF?? Branch of service would do for a start. Marine Corps, honorably discharged in 1992 after the first war in Iraq. My comment had nothing to do with trolling. It's sad that he had to lose his arm performing a completely selfless act for his country.

      The most he ever received from the VA was a limb with a hook on the end. The three insurance carriers are from his three different employers from then until now.

      What makes you think his insurance carriers are not responsible for a pre-existing condition when his prosthetic needs replaced or is damaged? Sure they replace it, but not with anything worth a damn.
  4. "Named after Skywalker, I assume" by empaler · · Score: 5, Informative

    That snippet really sums up the quality of the linked article.
    In both the linked pages from the Wired article, it is explained in the first paragraph that, yes, this is inspired by Luke's prosthetic hand. All Things Digital article, Gizmodo article.

  5. Human Rights Management by Darkness404 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How long until the government mandates that these must have HRM on them (Human Rights Management) which would make it impossible to do certain "illegal" things. For example if it doesn't think you are 21 you can't pick up a beer bottle or a wine glass, it wouldn't let you pull a trigger of a gun, nor wield a knife defensively. Now, this technology is still 25-75 years off before it could actually be used, but could it be that in 150 years you would have to have your normal arms either amputated or modified to support Human Rights Management?

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    1. Re:Human Rights Management by maxume · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you live in a democracy, start thinking of yourself as part of the government. Then, society mandates things and they seem even stupider.

      Sure, something can call itself a democracy and not be a democracy, but if you don't at least think of it as a democracy, it sure as hell isn't ever going to be one.

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      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    2. Re:Human Rights Management by Worthless_Comments · · Score: 4, Informative

      Democracy is the worst form of government ... except all the others that have been tried.

      It's a lot less misleading when you actually finish the quote.

  6. Why stop at "human like" articulation? by HockeyPuck · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why only have an elbow and wrist and five fingers? Why not make an articulated arm that has more 'elbow' joints and two opposing digits (read: thumbs). If the brain isn't used to controlling 6 finger/digits, could it learn the task? Surely a wrist that could rotate 180degrees in either direction would be better than our current design.

    1. Re:Why stop at "human like" articulation? by s4m7 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've wondered about this: if the technology improved to the point where you could feel all the sensations with a prosthetic arm as with your original arm, but the materials were stronger, faster and more flexible, why not replace them voluntarily?

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      This comment is fully compliant with RFC 527.
    2. Re:Why stop at "human like" articulation? by rolfwind · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

      (Besides, the technology is just too new.)

    3. Re:Why stop at "human like" articulation? by Smidge204 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm sure most people would just want their old arm back.

      But honestly? If I'm getting an artificial body part I want an upgrade. Artificial arms need "Inspector Gadget" type tools built into them. artificial legs need built-in roller blades or "kangaroo boot" springs. Artificial eyes need video-in jacks, zoom and swappable IR vision filters.

      I'm not sure I'd have a perfectly good body part removed for one - especially at this stage in tech - but if anything happens and I'm getting it anyway...
      =Smidge=

    4. Re:Why stop at "human like" articulation? by Zarf · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I imagine it's much harder than you may think to pick up a control scheme for a part of your body that's not only never existed on your body, but never existed in the history of your species.

      But, more to the point, I think they ought to focus on the basics before adding on extra fingers and elbows ;) Actually, I'd like to test this hypothesis. I'll bet we'll be shocked to find out that it's actually easy for people who are young enough. I know, that's counter-intuitive, but I suspect that the reason there is a yawning chasm between generations and their use of technology is not that old folks are Luddites but that some folks can't adapt to the mental augmentation that is the exo-cortex of the Internet.

      Notice that we don't see this chasm in older baby-boomers. I think that means we won't see another gaping technology chasm between generations. The computers are here now and brains are adapting to them. Other threads on slashdot have discussed the idea that computer programs become mental extensions just as tools become extensions of people's bodies. Stories of ancient knights speak of warriors fighting until they could not tell their arms from their swords.

      So I'd bet that using that "mental extension into the tool" effect you really could find ways to add on novel new cybernetic body-parts and that the brains of mammals are actually adaptive enough to deal with it. I think this will be true because of the structure of mammal brains and its ability to re-wire itself.

      After all don't you wince when you hit something in your car? Some people even exclaim "ouch" as if they were themselves hurt. I suspect it's an artifact of being able to use tools that enables us to tack on a tool as a "temporary body part"
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  7. Control of real limbs? by markk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So can this be adapted with some work to control real limbs of quadraplegics and paraplegics? Seems like something that could be done with some kind of muscle or nerve stimulation. One could imagine a direct stimulation of nerves in the arm based on this kind of signals. A person could actually "teach" the system to get some kind of use of limbs - even if there is no feeling.

  8. luke by rubycodez · · Score: 3, Funny

    not named for skywalker, it longs for freedom even as its ordered to dig and fill a hole again and again and wins egg eating contests.

  9. Mecha on the moon by Zarf · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Am I the only one that sees this as an exciting new way to control giant robots and Mecha? One of the demo videos shows an engineer who has not lost an arm controlling the device as a third arm. That could mean the creation of a real-life Doctor Octopus ... or even a way to control real life Mecha or telerobotic space exploration systems for mining the moon!

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  10. Re:Another not-article reading whiner. by foniksonik · · Score: 4, Informative

    ahemmmm.... muscles ARE controlled by the mind... voluntary and involuntary. The method they used was to 'train' the prosthetic by asking the guy to do something, seeing how the arm responded to his mental commands/instincts/whatever, then re-calibrated the arm to do the action... with a few days of training you could have the arm responding to a large range of voluntary coordinations.

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    A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  11. good step in the right direction by jollyreaper · · Score: 3, Funny

    Artificial limbs won't truly be kick-ass until they're better than the organic limbs they replace. And they need to make that reverb sproinging sound whenever they do something cool.

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  12. Re:pattipace7@yahoo.com by SlashWombat · · Score: 3, Informative

    In the second video, it was stated that the arm weight was modeled on a womens arm. I think 8.8 pounds was the stated figure, which does not seem like much considering the arm appears to offer the same range of movements as a normal arm.

    I was a bit curious that the nerves were wired to chest muscles ... A bionic ear (cochlea implant) used to use a small rubbery gadget with 64 "needles" that would prick into the aural nerve when the rubber was wraped around it. (which gave 32 channels to excite that bundle of nerve fibres.) I am surprised something like that wasn't employed (in reverse ... as pick-ups) in at least some of the experiments.