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Bionic Leg Undergoing Clinical Trials
fangmcgee writes "A 'bionic' leg designed for people who have lost a lower leg is undergoing clinical trials sponsored by the US Army. The researchers hope the leg will be able to learn the patient's nerve signal patterns and be able to move in response to the patient's own muscles and nerves (abstract). Electrodes are attached to nine muscles in the thigh to detect the patterns in which the nerve signals are fired. Different patterns correspond to different intended movements. In the current stages of training, the volunteers are wired up to the electrodes and learn how to use the muscles to make a computer avatar move on screen. Results showed that all the volunteers could control the avatar’s knee and ankle movements from neural information from the thigh, with amputees achieving 91 percent accuracy of movement and the non-amputees achieving 89 percent."
The interesting question is what we are going to do when such artificial limbs are actually better than the real deal. Voluntary amputation to get an upgrade? Interesting times....
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
We can rebuild him; faster, stronger... We have the technology!
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
You would think they would be able to do better than 90%. With that accuracy you would fall down the stairs at least 1 out of every 10 times you go down them.
I recently dumped the C-Leg for a general mechanical leg because it drove me nuts how I had no say how the C-Leg tried to guess what I was doing... and if it didn't know, it would go into geriactric safety mode. I don't plan on using another knee that I have to recharge until this kind of tech actually comes to fruitation. I have a feeling it will be another 5 to 10 years.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
Biological legs get broken too, and I think I'd rather have an interchangeable leg with a pain cut-off (when they get mild pain and touch sensation working) get broken than have a biological one broken. I'll give you that biological legs rarely get stolen, though.
The DVD collection has an interview with the director. His inspiration was NFL Films, who shoot runningbacks in slow motion.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
And kudos to the Army for sponsoring this. It's the least they could do to support their sons and daughters who give life and, in many cases, limb for their country.
Actually, if you look at the history of medicine (especially emergency medicine) it owes a lot to the military. Many civilians are alive today because of the R&D investments made by military forces around the world.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Bad news.... if you replace all the parts, you're dead. Sure, there may now be a robotic doppelganger out there, but it's not you. You don't get to share in its experiences simply because it looks and acts like you. Unless they come up with a way to perform soul transplants, you're screwed. And if there is no soul to transplant, then you're really screwed.
As long as I feel continuity through the upgrade process, I don't give a rat's arse about philosophical problems or souls...
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
Eat the nano-pill, and the nanobots cruise to your brain, and start replacing it in-place with a billion-times-faster device. As you look up at the ceiling fan, it will start slowing until it comes to almost a stop; you're thinking that much faster. The hitch is that communicating with those who have not taken the pill become excruciatingly slow, like one word every year, from your perception. "The digital divide" indeed!
If the devices used to replace your neurons take full advantage of the nanotechnology they should have (and would need to be able to do such a thing in the first place), you should also be able to adjust your own clock speed so to speak, under full conscious control.
When talking to 'meat bags', you could slow your brain down to the standard human speed (or slightly higher) to communicate and be able to take part in real-world activities.
In fact while the majority of humans are still humans, you would want to run in that state as the default mode, only speeding things up when you needed to think at higher rates.
Only after most people are switched over, or for the times you are around people that are all upgraded, would everyone in the group think faster by default to stay at the same speeds.
It would be more like the fight scene in the recent Sherlock Holmes movie.
You raise your clock speed and think out your plan for 15 minutes of thought time, which only takes a second or so of real time, then when done thinking you slow back down some what to execute the plan physically.
And I for one can not wait for the singularity of nanotechnology!