Robots R Us
Remember the prosthetic arm/hand that Luke Skywalker had in Star Wars?
Just read an interesting article about the use of a prosthetic limb prototype that is being tested and further developed for the use of equipping soldiers with lost limbs. So far, there is only mention about a prosthetic arm, but hopefully with the new technology they talk about in the article, there will be more limbs available within the near future. It looks like they have developed a prototype that not only looks like an arm and hand from the picture provided in the article, but that actually mimics fine motor functions by use of nerve implants in the limb. They have tested it on users, and so far they have been able to do things like pick up checkers and grab things like a credit card from a wallet. They (the engineers) are hoping that by 2009 they have a fully working model for soldiers who have lost their limbs. Since 2003, over 800 service men and women have lost either limbs, toes or fingers as a result of the war. Pretty interesting stuff. Check it out.
http://tech.msn.com/products/articlecnet.aspx?cp-documentid=4809672>1=10036
Just read an interesting article about the use of a prosthetic limb prototype that is being tested and further developed for the use of equipping soldiers with lost limbs. So far, there is only mention about a prosthetic arm, but hopefully with the new technology they talk about in the article, there will be more limbs available within the near future. It looks like they have developed a prototype that not only looks like an arm and hand from the picture provided in the article, but that actually mimics fine motor functions by use of nerve implants in the limb. They have tested it on users, and so far they have been able to do things like pick up checkers and grab things like a credit card from a wallet. They (the engineers) are hoping that by 2009 they have a fully working model for soldiers who have lost their limbs. Since 2003, over 800 service men and women have lost either limbs, toes or fingers as a result of the war. Pretty interesting stuff. Check it out.
http://tech.msn.com/products/articlecnet.aspx?cp-documentid=4809672>1=10036