DailyDirt: Melding Humans And Machines

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

"Terminator"-like cyborgs may still be just a thing of science fiction, but modern technological advances in bionics are enabling people to regain or enhance their ability to do everyday things that most people take for granted. Here are just a few examples of some bionically enhanced people (and animals).

• Customized 3D-printed appendages are helping a ~4-year-old girl regain use of her arms. The "magic arms" (as she calls them) attach to a modular body-powered upper-limb orthotic device called the Wilmington Robotic Exoskeleton (WREX). [url]
• The Mercedes Formula One team gave a new bionic arm to a teenage fan, who was born without a left hand, after he offered to sell Mercedes advertising space on his prosthetic arm. The customized i-LIMB Pulse, created with the help of Touch Bionics, allows him to do things like grip a pen to draw pictures and write, tie his shoe laces, and catch a ball. [url]
• Researchers are studying the amazing potential of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and neuroprosthetics. BCIs work because of the neuroplasticity of the brain, which allows neurons to form new connections in response to new stimuli. People, monkeys, and rats have all demonstrated the ability to use BCIs to perform various tasks. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: bci, biotech, human machine interface, neuroprosthetics, prosthetics, wilmington robotic exoskeleton
Companies: mercedes