Robotic Prostheses For Human Faces

holy_calamity writes "New Scientist reports on a patent application that suggests implanting polymer muscles beneath the skin of people suffering paralysis of the face to give them control of their features. The technique has already been used successfully to reanimate the eyelids of human cadavers. Movement could be returned to other facial features and even paralyzed limbs in the same way, the surgeons at University of California Davis say. The full patent application is also available on the WIPO site."

Comments

Way cool

[flaming error]

> The technique has already been used successfully to reanimate the eyelids of human cadavers.

That'll make such a great party trick.

Re:Way cool

[mc1138]

Not as cool as my zombie finger in a box!

Re:Way cool

[shawnap]

That'll make such a great party trick.

The real trick will be getting the host to let you into the party with a corpse slung over your shoulder.

Re:Way cool

[Bozzio]

That'll make such a great party trick.

I was thinking more along the lines of it being the greatest coroner/mortician prank EVER!

Re:Way cool

[flyingsquid]

So you can even give a dead person facial expressions? This technology seems to have no limits in it applications. I mean, I'll bet you could even get Keanu Reeves to display emotions.

OK, let me correct that statement: this technology seems to have almost no limits in its applications.

Re:Way cool

[Kell Bengal]

You've obviously never been to one of my parties.

Blinking dead people!

[TinBromide]

HOLY BLINKING DEADMAN!!!

I for one welcome our blinking undead overlords.

Re:Blinking dead people!

[Ethanol-fueled]

Partial facial paralysis hasn't done anything to Harm Sylvester Stallone's career.

Or the rest of Hollywood, for that matter. Cosmetic paralytics like botox give the appearence of fewer wrinkles and stop microexpressions from giving away lies or other unpleasant emotions, which is funny because they often cause a zombie-like facial expression. See: FoxNews.

Humans are striving to give facial movement to corpses while they give away their own facial expressions to look like corpses.

Cadaver control?

[CannonballHead]

The technique has already been used successfully to reanimate the eyelids of human cadavers.

Hmmm. I had no idea that cadavers had the capacity to control robotic eyelids :)

From the abstract:

Metbods: With use of four cadaver heads, an extended upper and lower blepharoplasty incision was used to secure an upper and lower expanded polytetrafluoroethylene implant in the medial orbital wall and tarsal plates. The slings were passed through a hole drilled in the lateral orbital wall or around a titanium screw. Lateral pull on the sling created eyelid closure, and the necessary distance of pull was measured. Results: The eyelid sling mechanism functioned to achieve complete eyelid closure. Less tension was required for eyelid closure when the sling was placed in both eyelids (3 mm of pull instead of 6 mm). Conclusions: The application of artificial muscle to a range of problems that affect both patient morbidity and quality of life is promising. Eyelid closure was created in a cadaver model using a novel sling, but future studies will need to address the feasibility of a prototype artificial muscle eyelid device in humans.

Robotic Prostheses For Human Feces

[Roblimo]

This is the advance *I'm* waiting for...

Potential here!

[Trillan]

Before you know it, being dead won't be nearly the handicap it is now.

What's that? I missed the point?

Queue the They Might Be Giants

[kwabbles]

If I were a carpenter I'd
Hammer on my piglet, I'd
Collect the seven dollars and I'd
Buy a big prosthetic forehead
And wear it on my real head

Everybody wants prosthetic
Foreheads on their real heads
Everybody wants prosthetic
Foreheads on their real heads

Great

[writerjosh]

BORG or Skynet? Which is coming first?

Why is this patentable?

[zooblethorpe]

Since when are surgical procedures patentable? And what are the ethics of patenting this anyway, and likely thereby preventing some people from receiving such treatment, even if it is somehow legal to do so?

Or is the patent specific to the artificial muscles?

Re:Why is this patentable?

[blueg3]

Note that it's a patent application. I haven't looked to see if it's patentable, but you can file applications for things that aren't patentable.

The concern about ethics really depends on what control is exerted with the patent. It'd all be speculation, since this isn't even a procedure ready to be used. (For drugs, for example, intellectual property controls back the majority of the drug cost -- so there are reasonable ethical questions. Even with a zero cost due to IP, neither robotic prosthesis nor the surgery and therapy needed to use them are at all cheap.)

Limited scope

[El_Smack]

Unless science can find another part of the human anatomy that is problematic when limp, this probably won't get off the ground.

Uncanny Valley

[lobiusmoop]

Feels like there's a great danger here of falling deep into the uncanny valley, especially with facial prosthetics.

I'm rewriting my will!

[Locke2005]

This is going to make my open-casket funeral so much more interesting!