Topic: Bionic Body Part Becoming A Reality

[Nemesis]

Link to first article

Rome, Italy (AHN) -Bionic body parts are becoming a reality, thanks to a highly dexterous, bio-inspired artificial hand, and sensory system, currently in development.

The artificial hand, which could provide patients with active feeling, is being developed under a European project.

The project, aptly named “Cyberhand,” aims to hard- wire the artificially created hand into the nervous system, allowing sensory feedback from the hand to reach the brain, and instructions to come from the brain to control the hand, at least in part.

Link to second article

This new prosthesis will:

   1.  be felt by an amputee as the lost natural limb delivering her/him a natural sensory feedback by means of the stimulation of some specific afferent nerves;

   2.  be controlled in a very natural way by processing the efferent neural signals coming from the  central nervous system (reducing the discomfort of the current EMG-based control prosthesis).

If it works well how long until professional athletes try to augment themselves this way?

[Commander Maxillius]

If it works well how long until professional athletes try to augment themselves this way?

We are the Borg...

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 

This would be very interesting to observe the beta testing....  How do they know what feedback levels to use?  What's the threshold between 'feeling' and 'pain'?  How do they wire it in correctly, or do they just hook it up and let the user re-learn the new wiring?

Hmm... Maybe I'll make one of my own in my basement lab and try it out.  Hey Dracho, can you be my beta tester?

[Commander Maxillius]

This would be very interesting to observe the beta testing....  How do they know what feedback levels to use?  What's the threshold between 'feeling' and 'pain'?  How do they wire it in correctly, or do they just hook it up and let the user re-learn the new wiring?

Hmm... Maybe I'll make one of my own in my basement lab and try it out.  Hey Dracho, can you be my beta tester?

"...then I got pissed.  Since I got this new hand I've had to relearn how to use it, and so far I've had much success, but it all goes out the window when I'm angry.  Anyway, this guy pissed me off, and I thought I was flipping him the bird and when I looked at my hand my thumb was up!  The guy just called me a fascist pig and I was giving him the thumbs up!!!!"

yeah... that would be pretty funny...