New Interface Could Wire Prosthetics Directly Into Amputees' Nervous Systems

Posted by samzenpus on Monday March 5, 2012 @05:18AM from the we-can-make-him-better dept.

cylonlover writes "Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have announced a breakthrough in prosthetics that may one day allow artificial limbs to be controlled by their wearers as naturally as organic ones, as well as providing sensations of touch and feeling. The scientists have developed a new interface consisting of a porous, flexible, conductive, biocompatible material through which nerve fibers can grow and act as a sort of junction through which nerve impulses can pass to the prosthesis and data from the prosthesis back to the nerve. If this new interface is successful, it has the potential to one day allow nerves to be connected directly to artificial limbs."

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Re:Holy Crap by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-05 05:55 · Score: 3, Informative

I saw the same functionality, i.e., artificial limbs controlled by a machine-nerve interface, demoed during a plenary talk at the 2008 IEEE Engineering in Biology and Medicine conference, and the results were incredible. One man, who had lost an arm, but had one of these artificial ones grafted on, was practically as dexterous as those with a natural arm and was able to interact with everyday objects with ease.