DailyDirt: Prosthetic Limbs -- Getting Better All The Time
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
One of the most inspiring examples of a person using prosthetic limbs is Oscar Pistorius (aka the "Blade Runner") -- who will be the first leg amputee to compete with carbon fiber feet at the London Olympics. Pistorius was previously disqualified from the 2008 Olympics, but he'll be allowed to compete this year, potentially paving the way for other athletes to move over from the Paralympics. Here are just a few technological advances for artificial limbs that could create some cyborg-olympic athletes.- Connecting severed nerves with robotic limbs needs a direct neural-prosthetic interface that could be made out of biocompatible polymers. The research could create prosthetics that are directly controlled by a user's thoughts, but such a system is still many years away from being a reality. [url]
- Paralyzed rats with spinal cord damage were given robotic legs that could respond to commands from the rats' brains, and these rats re-learned how to walk with several weeks of training. Maybe someday these little cyborgs will be as big as the Zhu Zhu pet craze... [url]
- Brain-computer interfaces are improving quite a bit, and one patient named S3 has 96 hair-sized electrodes implanted in her brain that can control a robotic arm well enough to lift a glass for a drink. The device used by S3 is a new version of Braingate that requires extensive training, but presumably, the technology will get even better and allow more quadriplegic people to have robotic help. [url]
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Filed Under: braingate, cyborg, hmi, neural-prosthetic interface, oscar pistorius, prosthetic limbs, robotic arms
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using my own lungs like a sucker
Homer: Also I think I'm getting a bed sore. What do you have to do to get turned round here [she begins]. Hey, what's Lucky hooked up to?
Woman: Ugh. A respirator, it's breaths for him.
Homer: And here I am using my own lungs like a sucker. And how come everyone gets a bed pan and I have to walk all away over there!
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Re: I'm wondering when they will start testing adding extra limbs.
I don’t recall any fMRI or such scans ever being done on such individuals, to try to find out how things are wired. The brain may turn out to be more flexible than we can imagine.
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Re: Re: I'm wondering when they will start testing adding extra limbs.
The brain is an awesome tool. Check out the work of Bach Y Rita and his work on using the tongue to see with: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bach-y-Rita
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Re:
Youtube: Girl to Cat Girl! - Necomimi Comes to the US! (Review) (ps: the girl is annoying, but she does review it and the video is legal)
Cost: $110 bucks.
Also you can see the new bionic eyes coming out this summer.
Prosthetics eyes aka bionic eyes, decoding the human brain code.
Youtube: TED - Sheila Nirenberg: A prosthetic eye to treat blindness
BBC: Light-powered bionic eye invented to help restore sight (May 2012)
ExtremeTech: The laser-powered bionic eye that gives 576-pixel grayscale vision to the blind
Cost: $115 K
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And it probably only costs around $2,000,000. At that price, every paralyzed patient can get one!
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Re:
:¬\
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Youtube: TED - Sheila Nirenberg: A prosthetic eye to treat blindness
Youtube: Girl to Cat Girl! - Necomimi Comes to the US! (Review)
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