Wearable Robot Adds Two Fingers To Your Hand

rtoz writes: Researchers at MIT have developed a robot that enhances the grasping motion of the human hand. This wrist-wearable robot adds two extra fingers that respond to movements in the wearer's hand. The robotic fingers are on either side of the hand — one outside the thumb, and the other outside the little finger. A control algorithm enables it to move in sync with the wearer's fingers to grasp objects of various shapes and sizes. With the assistance of these extra fingers, the user can grasp objects that are usually too difficult to pick up and manipulate with a single hand.

Comments

The Gripping Hand?

[boristdog]

I see that the kids at MIT have read their Niven.

Re:The Gripping Hand?

[drinkypoo]

I see that the kids at MIT have read their Niven.

They should probably have read their Shirow, instead. To wit, it makes much more sense to add more arms than to do anything else. We already have two arms which are good at doing fine work. Adding more fingers to them will only make them more cumbersome. Instead, you add more arms to perform gross tasks, like holding things up for a long time, carrying or moving heavy things, and so on. These arms could be programmable to continue doing whatever you were doing, whether it be static, dynamic, or include aspects of both. For example, clamping two items together, operating a pump, or holding a camera steady, respectively.

Re:The Gripping Hand?

[Anonymous Coward]

These arms could be programmable to continue doing whatever you were doing, whether it be static, dynamic, or include aspects of both. For example, clamping two items together, operating a pump, or holding a camera steady, respectively.

That's a weird way to say masturbation.

Re:Third hand?

[Dishevel]

I would prefer a third hand, with one more hand you can do much more than with just two additional fingers.

I am sure you are correct but controlling an extra arm may not be as intuitive as the extra fingers. It looks to me as if the programming kinda makes the fingers work with your natural movements to give you a little more capability.

And now for the improperly spun article of the day

[DrPeper]

Ok, so I read the snippet of the article and got one image in my mind, then when I went to the article and saw the picture... Let's just say less than impressive. Those aren't fingers those are sticks.

Wake me when I can strap two extra tentacle like arms with actually human(ish) hands on the end of them to my back. Oh and they should be partially intelligent too.

The Yakuza

[Ronin Developer]

are thrilled.

Re:And now for the improperly spun article of the

[boristdog]

Sure, and have Spider man trying to kick your ass all the time?

My name is Inigo Montoya

[cheese_boy]

You killed my father, prepare to die.
Oh - wait, you've got 7 fingers and not 6?
Oh, OK then, nevermind.

Re:Can't wait for new musical instruments

[un1nsp1red]

Maybe I'll finally be able to play Classical Gas!

Extra middle fingers would be useful

[NeoNormal]

to me in my job. I could flip off more managers in one action.

different than prostetic hand

[globaljustin]

wow...

first of all, I can criticize the concept and design all I want...it's not rude or offensive towards disabled people to demand *better* design at all...

missing one hand after an accident?

your (trolling) criticism is also factually incorrect....TFA isn't a prostetic hand to replace an injured limb...this is expressly intended to be an addition to the main 'hand' so anyone might use it

my point was/is that robotics is only limited by the power source and material strength now, and all these (really expensive) hype-generating projects is not progressing science...it's just rearranging of tinker toys, b/c we have different limits now...we have the BCI interface perfected enough to start using for this stuff...the design ideas are there...now its just a question of power/material strength...i'd like to see research and hype directed in that area

Interesting technology!

[duke_cheetah2003]

What caught my eye most about this invention is how much closer it brings us to operating HEAVY machinery by just moving our hands and the machine responds to our movements.

For me this brings exo-skeletal machines to mind as being much closer to reality, things like the loader from Aliens, the exo-combat skeletons in Matrix, etc. The applications of the tracking system exampled in the video are simply endless, from operating sci-fi constructs already mentioned, right down to more real machinery such as excavators, cranes and other construction machinery.

Looking forward to seeing who merges this stuff with heavy machinery first. ^.^