Next Gen

[Zero]

I was on the tube this morning and there was this girl with a missing limb, an amputee. And from somewhat just under the elbow down she had this prosthetic arm and hand. It looked metallic/carbon-fibre and the hand was definitely metallic (it looked just like the Terminator's hand) and it had gripping capability - she could close the fingers on the pages of the magazine she was reading. Through her nerves in her arm she could somehow control, at least to some degree, movement of the hand/fingers.

It just blew me away the advances they have made in this field!

I wonder if she was rich and was able to pay for this or if she was part of some trial or something - there are surely at this stage only a very few people with this kind of thing I guess?...I say this as the arm was very customised, it was white with gold metallic embellishments (not something out of the local hospital), she had clearly decided to go with a kind of space-age robotic artsy look rather than skin-tone.

 

[Transk53]

I was on the tube this morning and there was this girl with a missing limb, an amputee. And from somewhat just under the elbow down she had this prosthetic arm and hand. It looked metallic/carbon-fibre and the hand was definitely metallic (it looked just like the Terminator's hand) and it had gripping capability - she could close the fingers on the pages of the magazine she was reading. Through her nerves in her arm she could somehow control, at least to some degree, movement of the hand/fingers.

It just blew me away the advances they have made in this field!

I wonder if she was rich and was able to pay for this or if she was part of some trial or something - there are surely at this stage only a very few people with this kind of thing I guess?...I say this as the arm was very customised, it was white with gold metallic embellishments (not something out of the local hospital), she had clearly decided to go with a kind of space-age robotic artsy look rather than skin-tone.

There was something on the news not long ago about an artist who customises prosthetic limbs. What you saw does sound high end.

 

[Zero]

There was something on the news not long ago about an artist who customises prosthetic limbs. What you saw does sound high end.

Interesting, thanks.

 

[Drose427]

At the rate TEchnology in all fields has been growing and expanding, I wouldnt be surprised to see mass mostly affordable implementation of things like this in the next 5-10 years.

 

[Transk53]

Believe this was what I saw.

The Alternative Limb Project Imaginative and bespoke prosthetics

 

[Shai Hulud]

I've worked with medical researchers and scientists who specialize in prosthetics, and yes the advances that are being made in the field are remarkable. Besides the introduction of robotics to prosthetics, engineers and scientists have also been working on ways to allow the prosthetic limb's joints and components to give appropriate sensory-based responses and movements in reaction to signals from the patient's nervous system. This gives a sense of "feeling" and has actually been proven to assist in how well the patient can control the limb and acclimate.

Source:
I am a graduate-school level cybernetics engineer with a double major in optics and robotics

 

[Zero]

Source:
I am a graduate-school level cybernetics engineer with a double major in optics and robotics

Now that sounds like an interesting and way cool field to be in. Just do me a favour and don't invent Kill-Bots anytime soon would you.

 

[Punchy]

I saw this a while back...you may have already seen it:

 

[Shai Hulud]

Now that sounds like an interesting and way cool field to be in. Just do me a favour and don't invent Kill-Bots anytime soon would you.

It's my dream to make smart prosthetic limbs more accessible for the disabled, particularly athletes and people engaged in manual labor. On the side it's working contractual/consultant in factories, plants, and anything that requires fiber-optic. Hospitals with more advanced medical equipment sometimes have need for someone in this line of work, but those have been few and far between as of late.