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Improving the Abilities of Bionic Arm Patients
Al writes "Tech Review has an article about the progress being made on prosthetic arms that can be controlled using nerves that once connected to the missing limb via muscles in the chest. Todd Kuiken, director of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago's Center for Bionic Medicine has pioneered the technique, which has so far given more than 30 patients the ability to control a mechanical prosthetic simply by thinking about moving their old arm. Those who have had the procedure report using their arm to slice hot peppers, open a bag of flour, put on a belt, operate a tape measure, or remove a new tennis ball from a container. The next step is to add sensing capabilities to the arms so that this information can be fed back to the reconnected nerves."
Can you safely whack off with the bionic arm? It's like giving yourself a stranger!
one of these things cost an arm & a leg!
I'm a one-armed commando in need of a bionic arm. However, I was hoping to acquire one with a grappling hook attachment instead of the ubiquitous mechanized hand replacements. I have reason to believe that Imperialist Nazis are trying to resurrect Adolf Hitler and believe a grappling hook would help me stop them, especially when my underdeveloped leg muscles and inability to jump vertically, diagonally, or horizontally are taken into account. Does anyone know where I might find such a gadget? Any information is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Ladd
We may not fully understand the complex calculations going on in the brain, but we do know that for motor control basically an electrical signal propagates down an axon which connects to a muscle. Once the electrical signal reaches the end there is a chemical reaction which triggers the muscle contraction. There are usually multiple axons connecting to a muscle (the amount active controlling the amount of contraction). So if you take the ends of these axons connecting to residual muscle from the amputated limb and measure the electrical signal you can determine whether the brain is trying to activate that muscle or not. Then you have an algorithm controlling your prosthesis to turn on a motor instead of a muscle.
I think what they're doing is sensing electrical signals generated by the muscles rather than directly by the nerves, and the nerve-moving is just done to route the usual mental input through that patch of (pectoral) muscle. That way you don't have to teach yourself to flex your pecs to move the robot arm; you try to control the missing arm and the signals are routed to the chest muscle, where they're read by the machine.
Revive the Constitution.
I know I'll get modded down for this, but, hmmm...Let's test this out...
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.