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A New Robotic Hand That Can "Feel"
Dyne09 writes "The BBC is running a video report about a group of Swiss and Italian scientists who have created the 'Smart Hand,' a robotic hand with forty sensors that 'connect directly to the brain.' Though fuzzy on the details, the report says the hand provides sensor feedback to a willing test subject, a 22-year-old man who lost his hand to cancer three years ago. How long until we have access to Star Wars-esque robotic limbs?"
Telepresenceporn
4 years.
Techno Viking, meet Cyborg Viking -- Robin Af Ekenstam.
Now we have 17 years before Bruce Willis pulls the plug and saves us all!
my sstream of consciousness
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Swedish and Italian
How long until we have access to Star Wars-esque robotic limbs?"
Depends if the demand keeps increasing.
This is amazing. The first thing that comes to mind is the 1987 movie, Robocop. I have to wonder what drama will be left for movies in a couple decades from now if imagination is becoming a reality.
So many new articles in the past weeks about new arms, legs, hearts (maybe/hopefully )etc, at what point will the concept of death change ? How much time do we have before all our parts can be replaced and we can be immortal overloads eating junk food all day.
i think it's possible we will solve this in our life time if moralists and religous groups don't get in the way of good science.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Good.
I regret that I only have one mod point to give per post.
Eventually it may be possible that the brain itself could be replaced with an artificial unit (and our conciousness "Transeferred"). At that point though I'd say that you wouldn't really have the same person left. Just a simulation of that person. Or as Dr. Bashir put it in one episode of DS9 (Star Trek had artificial brains):
Nerys, if I remove the rest of his brain... put a machine in its place... he may look like Bareil... and he may even talk like Bareil... but it won't be Bareil. The "spark of life" will be gone. He'll be dead. And I'll be the one who killed him.
Indeed if we ever moved to that point, there would be no need for the rest of the artificial organs. Most of that stuff serves one ultimate goal - keep the brain running. If the brain itself were powerable by electricity then it would make sense to eliminate the other inefficient biological parts and just plug the new artificial brain into a completely artificial body.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
This technology is only a subset of the prosthetic arm - 'Luke' - developed by Dean Kamen's company. The prosthetic arm is controlled directly by the user's brain as well and allows a lot more complexity compared to the hand shown here. Also, Luke is being built as a modular system where you only use the parts of the arm that you need - if you don't need the upper arm, you can use just the hand and lower arm, and so forth.
More details below:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/05/dean-kamens-rob/
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/dean-kamens-luke-arm-prosthesis-readies-for-clinical-trials/2
http://blog.ted.com/2008/02/dean_kamens_arm.php
PS: For those who can't place the name, Dean Kamen is the inventor of Segway, among other things.
Cancer below the elbow or below the knee is medically unheard of ...
"There are 11 kinds of people: those who know binary, those who don't, and those who could not care less!"
Does anyone know why is this story tagged as porn?
The future (post 2000) isn't as epic as was promised, but it is nice to see that some things they promised are actually coming through. Losing ones arms or legs will still suck but you can look forward to being able to live without needing assistance for every little thing. The tech is still in it's infancy, i'm sure that down the line the people with prosthetic limbs will be moving among us without us having a clue!
... but I'm thinking "Futurama". As in "Handcrafters - new hands in about an hour!"
#DeleteChrome
When we more fully understand and modify humans through genetics, etc., it will make these mechanics look like stone spears do today.
Just imagine if we could grow a new limb with some daily therapy in only a few months; or if humans were Radiation Hardened at the cellular level from birth.
Hey Edlll, think you might want to take a shower and wash some of that homophobia off. What do you care if it's a dude?
Seriously, once the touch is digital, it's gender-less. Find me a digital tongue, I don't care if it's a guy, girl, or pygmie camel is on the other end so long as that tongue moves ........ohhhh like that!
Besides, *all* my gay friends say hj's from other gay men are superior to the ones from straight women. Something about you have to have one to know how to touch one.
Sweet dreams!
I think if you could grow a brain that was 100% identical to your original, and transfer all of the information from the original, it'd still be you.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
you see, Italians are always there to give an hand, when you are in need...
then they looks strangely at you and say:
"ya know, electronic hands broke sometime... you should pay for some protection"
(guys, I am making jokes ok? (I am myself Italian!))
Ciao
ALEX
Replace a living brain neuron by neuron with a completely compatible artificial replacements. At point do you become a different person?
No risk of STDs, no worries about whether you are large enough... Hell, robotic penises will rid the world of Viagra and Penis enlargement spam! In awkward situation? Just disconnect.
I, for one, am waiting for Omgle for sex.
Wouldn't it be possible using tech like this to create something like a brain/nerve controlled mouse? I've seen some of the videos where they have what appears to be multiple calibration control slider sensors on the computer screen that appear to work similar to those used when calibrating a joystick. With just 2 axes you should be able take over a large portion of the mouse's functionality of moving the cursor, but with nine or more you could replace almost all current input devices, short of maybe the keyboard.
Correct the article.
No where in the video or the linked article, says anything about Swiss people.
They guy with the hand is speking Swedish and it's clearly say Sweden in the article.
It's so american to make this misstake. //Robert (yeap i'm Swedish)
But can it... love?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
So many new articles in the past weeks about new arms, legs, hearts (maybe/hopefully )etc, at what point will the concept of death change ? How much time do we have before all our parts can be replaced and we can be immortal overloads eating junk food all day.
2030
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Mod AC parent up. Very informative.
My grandfather has an old axe. It's had 3 new handles, and 2 new heads ...
It may be somewhat offtopic, but even as a "straight dude" (Ok so let's say 1 on the Kinsey scale) I can tell you hand(and other)jobs from a man ARE much better then from a woman. Just so you know.
I've come to embrace transsexuals.
The brain's ability to adapt to enormous change in the manner of input it's receiving is incredible. It will be very interesting to see how effectively the brain can adapt to interpreting the sensory signals from the new hand and control it. This seems like even more of a good idea now.
So if this is the future...where's my jet pack?
Why not call this by the more accurate (and awesome) name: cybernetic.
For some reason we forget how many cyborgs we already have living with cochlear implants, cybernetic prosthetics, bionic hearts, and more. They're cyborgs, and that's awesome. Welcome to the future!
Write your representatives! Repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!
http://www.slashdong.com/ Proceed at your own caution
Besides, *all* my gay friends say hj's from other gay men are superior to the ones from straight women. Something about you have to have one to know how to touch one.
Uh, maybe it's just hotter for them, since they're into dudes and all? Just my own 2 cents.
Personally it's not entirely about how good it feels, it's also about how hot the chick is. Having a dude manipulate my junk would destroy the experience for me. Also just my 2 cents; you're welcome to have a different opinion.
We cyborgs are legion. There are people with artificial hips, knees, heart pacemakers, etc. I have an artificial lens in my left eye that sits on struts and can actually focus.
You will be assimilated. You will beg to be assimilated. I spent a thousand dollars of my own money to be assimilated (and it was worth every penny to no longer need glasses and contacts).
Free Martian Whores!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus
I think the issue now is that the human brain is constantly having neurons dye and new ones grow.
If you slowly replace one at a time... At what point does it cease to be the original. Actually it only takes 7 years (or so) for the process for all our cells.
Did the person from 7 years ago die and I am a new person with their memories?
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Geez, you suck one dick and you're labelled a faggot!
Look at it alternatively though: with memory transfer (as would be required by such an electronic replacement, it would be possible to transfer your memories and thoughts to the target device and leave your brain intact. Ok, so you wake up. You stare at the mechanical version of yourself which has just been switched on. YOU still exist. The mechanical replacement in front if you has your memories and thinks as if it were you, but now being a third party observer I think it's plainly obvious that the entity standing in front of you is not you.
Indeed, if you were to then drop dead, do you think "you" would somehow transfer to the new mechanical body? Of course not. It exists as a separate entity. "You" would cease to exist, leaving on the reproduction that thinks very much like you.
To an external observer, sure, you never died, but from in internal point of view, each new instance is a different person. I really think Descartes was onto something when he said "I think, therefore I am.".
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Nooooo! That's Impossible!
Is it not? In the hypothetical Star Trek universe, are people no longer the same person after Transportation (in which their matter is destroyed completely and rebuilt at a different time and location)? The only thing preventing use of Transport for cloning (of an exact duplicate) is, as far as I know, ethical rather than technological (since they've had accidents that have cloned people). If one person steps into one door, and two people step out the other, who's to say which is "you"? If a perfect mind transfer were possible, I think the question's moot. If we put Stephen Hawking in a brand new robotic body, I suspect he'd be just as brilliant.
If minds are information, it's not hard to imagine that, someday, technology will exist to allow us to make perfect copies -- just the way we now can with music. At (or before) that point, our whole concept of what it means to be a person will need to evolve. Accelerando delves into this in a more mindblowing and complete manner than I can. ;)
If you knew your current body were dying of cancer, and you could transfer your consciousness to a machine next to your body, after having done so I believe the consciousness in the machine would consider itself "you" even as it watched its former shell die. Copying before death would be ... confusing, at the least. I would love to see some chess grandmaster do it, though. ;)
"I've come while embracing transsexuals?"
But instead of hands, I want pincers and instead of arms, I want tentacles.
i guess it comes down to do you believe there is something more to us then the information stored in the brain?
Perhaps not even then. If there is a soul that runs the brain behind the scenes, perhaps it can run anything sufficiently brain-like from behind the scenes.
Or, it'll be like the HHGTTG: "I'll know the difference!"..."No you won't, you'll be programmed not to."
Good post. When you think about it, all the post-y2k "letdowns" fall into two categories:
1. Dangerous and expensive personal vehicles
2. Tourism to insanely expensive and inhospitable locations
What do they have in common? Danger and expense. Futurists speculating on the post-y2k era seem to have ignored two major trends:
1. The increasing obsession with safety. Come on, this has been going on throughout the history of civilization, it's not like it snuck up on you. The only issue is that it's been gaining on our technological advances lately (see: automotive industry, sucky new cars instead of cool future cars).
2. The only very slight increase in wealth/standard of living for the middle and lower classes despite massive leaps in productivity and efficiency. Again - come on, this is not new.
So no flying cars or cool future cars, jetpacks, lunar theme parks or underwater hotels for the masses.
Expectations in all other areas have been met or exceeded IMO.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I've often joked that by the time it's my turn to die, I'll just be able to upload myself into a cyborg, and it'll be sweet, but there's gotta be some serious upheaval going along with that.
One other idea I thought was pretty cool would be to upload myself into a self-repairing space ship and explore the universe, unhindered by long flight times.
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I for one welcome our new immortal overlords.....
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No, it won't be transferred, just copied. It is similar to a forked process (sorry, no car analogies this time) -- identical but not the same one.
Of course, if you replace it by parts, and leave enough time for the rest of the brain to adapt to the change before replacing the next part, it may work (provided that the brain has redundancy mechanisms so that no memories or personality traits are lost when a bunch on neurons are replaced with artificial ones), but that sounds more complicated to implement.
One other idea I thought was pretty cool would be to upload myself into a self-repairing space ship and explore the universe, unhindered by long flight times.
The ever-present issue with that though is that I'm sure such a spaceship will be expensive. REALLY expensive. Even if it were technologically possible only the super-rich would be able to afford it in a Capitalist system, or in a (truly) Communist system nobody would be able to afford it.
I think for something on that scale you'd be looking at more economic roadblocks than technological. Heck even the cyborg body might be a problem in that regard. I'd suspect that if immortality via medical means does get here it will only be for a limited wealthy subset of the population. You'll still have poorer people living and dying just like they always have.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
I should have mentioned my whole plan;
1. ???
2. Profit!
3. Do the spaceship thing.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
If you 'transfer' yourself, you are creating a copy of yourself. And after that you destroy the original...
Only if you gradually replace the brain cells you can stay you while replacing the brain...
- The Don of the Internet