Futurist Foresight

DIY bionics as a step towards fully integrated neural linked systems.

DIY bionics - making kids smile again.

See the joy in Liam’s eyes as he is grasping a ball with his right hand for the first time. By the time this cute fellow grows up, he will have a bionic hand that will be connected to his neural-system and be indistinguishable from his biological body; but all Liam cares about for now his being able to play ball.

Bionic prosthetics that can be controlled via a mobile app.

futurescope:

Bionic App

via NewScientist:

The powered thumb is controlled by signals from the user’s arm muscles or - in a first for upper limb prostheses - via a smartphone app: a tap of the screen and the hand automatically arranges itself into a preset grip. The thumb can move into 24 different positions and new, extra-sensitive fingertip electrodes also give improved dexterity.

“Powered thumb rotation, combined with the mobile app and quick access to all these new grips, gives me natural hand function that I never imagined would be possible,” says Bertolt Meyer, who wears one of the new hands.

The app makes it easy to configure presets by group, such as “work”, which includes positions ready for typing, handling documents or using a mouse. The app also includes diagnostic tools and training modes for new users.

[read more] [touch bionics] [Image: Murdoch Ferguson/Ferguson Imaging]

A quick update on the amazing bebionic prosthetic hand.

joshbyard:

Advanced Prosthetic Hand Ties Shoes, Deals Cards

This hand, the bebionic3, actually shows it doing some of the stuff you’d think it might: tying shoes, dealing cards, picking up household items, etc.

Those tasks make it sound mundane, but it’s actually a pretty darn impressive hand. Not only can it squeeze and pinch, it can also do some less commonly used movements, like making the rock-on devil horns or spinning in a full circle. It even automatically grips an object when it detects that the object’s slipping.

(via Watch This Unbelievable Robot Hand Tie A Shoe | Popular Science)

(via futurescope)

Bionics with a sense of touch! What a breakthrough for cybernetics!

neurosciencestuff:

A sensational breakthrough: the first bionic hand that can feel

The first bionic hand that allows an amputee to feel what they are touching will be transplanted later this year in a pioneering operation that could introduce a new generation of artificial limbs with sensory perception.

The patient is an unnamed man in his 20s living in Rome who lost the lower part of his arm following an accident, said Silvestro Micera of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

The wiring of his new bionic hand will be connected to the patient’s nervous system with the hope that the man will be able to control the movements of the hand as well as receiving touch signals from the hand’s skin sensors.

Dr Micera said that the hand will be attached directly to the patient’s nervous system via electrodes clipped onto two of the arm’s main nerves, the median and the ulnar nerves.

This should allow the man to control the hand by his thoughts, as well as receiving sensory signals to his brain from the hand’s sensors. It will effectively provide a fast, bidirectional flow of information between the man’s nervous system and the prosthetic hand.

“This is real progress, real hope for amputees. It will be the first prosthetic that will provide real-time sensory feedback for grasping,” Dr Micera said.

“It is clear that the more sensory feeling an amputee has, the more likely you will get full acceptance of that limb,” he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston.

“We could be on the cusp of providing new and more effective clinical solutions to amputees in the next year,” he said.

(via fuckyeahrobots)

Another step towards robotic assistance with this exoskeleton suit.

beyondsingularity:

The Robot Suit HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) has been designed and built by Cyberdyne Inc. with assistance from researchers around the country. It’s described by its makers as a cyborg-type robot meant to supplement human muscles or to assist in their rehabilitation. Its part handrail, part sensor and part hydraulically controlled machinery. A patient stands between two handrails, holding on, while sensors are affixed to the skin of the legs. The sensors pick up nerve signals which are sent to an onboard computer. Those signals are then converted to action by small motors and power units that cause the muscle to be worked in the same way it would be were the person’s body able to move it on their own. The end result is a direct connection between nerve signals and movement, which the researchers believe, will result in faster and perhaps better recovery for the patient.

Another medical step forward with this bionic eye.

holdinghope:

World’s First Bionic Eye Receives FDA Approval

http://goo.gl/SQ36e

The new retinal prosthesis, called Argus II, can restore partial sight to people blinded by a degenerative eye disease. The Argus II works by substituting a small array of electrodes for the light-sensing cells that normally react to light by sending an electric signal toward the back of the retina. Those signals are relayed to the optic nerve behind the eye, and travel back along the nerve to the brain. In people with the genetic disease Retinitis pigmentosa, which affects about 100,000 people in the U.S. today, those light-sensing cells gradually stop working, resulting in total blindness. In addition to the electrode array, which is implanted in the retina at the back of the eye, the Argus II system consists of a small video camera attached to a pair of eyeglasses and a visual processor the user carries around their waist. Data from the video camera is sent to the visual processor and then back to the glasses, where it is transmitted wirelessly to the embedded electrodes.

(via futurescope)

Prosthetics tech has come a long way from the inflexible lowtech early alternatives. (See more at the Bebionic site).

sagansense:

New Prosthetic Hand Has Sweet Skills, Terminator Looks

Nigel Ackland lost half his arm in an accident six years ago. But now he’s got a carbon-fiber prosthetic arm that is strong enough to grip a beer yet gentle enough to clutch an egg.

The prosthesis is called the BeBionic3 myoelectric hand and is made by a British company named RSLSteeper. It’s made from a carbon-fiber body, making it light yet strong, and has aluminum and alloy knuckles. The hand can do much more than the typical prosthesis.

“A standard prosthetic hand has one pinch, where the thumb and fingers come down together,” said Richard Shapcott, general manager of SteeperUSA, the US branch of RSLSteeper. This can produce a strong grip that can’t handle more delicate tasks.

The BeBionic3 hand, in contrast, has different motors for each finger, allowing them to articulate separately to get a combination of strength and grip. Inside the prosthesis is a small amp that picks up the minute myoelectric signal produced by human muscles. The signal is then amplified and tells the hand whether to open or close. When Ackland tenses the outer muscle on his arm, the hand will open. If he tenses the other, it will close. Tensing both muscles together switches between controlling the hand and spinning the wrist. Because the strength of the user firing their muscles determines the strength of the grip, someone outfitted with the device can gently clutch a egg, grasp a tool, or shake a hand.

The BeBionic3 comes with eight different grips programmed into it, which can be augmented with software that comes with the product. In the video above, you can see Ackland demonstrating some of the grips, which include extending his pointer finger, gripping something with all fingers, and making a come-hither motion. “This is the one that scares children and upsets my wife,” said Ackland in the video.

The thumb can be moved into opposition for additional grip types. Ackland switches between the different modes by firing his muscle twice in close succession. The arm has a small learning curve but Ackland has been wearing it for several months and appears well versed in its abilities in the video above.

Shapcott says that between 30 and 50 people have been outfitted with the device since September. Though it would retail for a large price, which he did not disclose, he said that the hand is covered by most insurance and Medicare in the U.S. and the national healthcare in the U.K.

Users can customize the device to a certain extent, adding new modes or changing the order in which they appear. RSLSteeper also makes a silicon cosmetic skin that mimics human flesh to cover the arm but it looks like Ackland is happy to leave it exposed as a futuristic Terminator device.

Future versions will likely have more modes and more capabilities, said Shapcott. But the human hand is still far more complex.

“Just bringing your pinky to your thumb is nearly impossible to do with motors,” he said. “Unless you’re doing something animatronic, but then that couldn’t stand up to the rigors of daily life.”

Biohacking: A bit more on the trend for basement augmentation.

emergentfutures:

Cyborg America: inside the strange new world of basement body hackers

Full Story: The Verge

(via smarterplanet)

Cyborg: Taking the next step towards a cyberpunk future.

joshbyard:

“Grinders” Chase the Cyborg Tech Bleeding Edge With Grey-Market Basement Surgeries

The boys from Grindhouse Wetwares both sucked down Parliament menthols the whole time we talked. There was no irony for them in dreaming of the possibilities for one’s body and willfully destroying it.

“For me, the end game is my brain and spinal column in a jar, and a robot body out in the world doing my bidding,” said Sarver. “I would really prefer not to have to rely on an inefficient four-valve pump that sends liquid through these fragile hoses. Fuck cheetahs. I want to punch through walls.”

Flesh and blood are easily shed in grinder circles, at least theoretically speaking. “People recoil from the idea of tampering inside the body,” said Tim. “I am lost when it comes to people’s unhealthy connections to your body. This is just a decaying lump of flesh that gets old, it’s leaking fluid all the time, it’s obscene to think this is me. I am my ideas and the sum of my experiences.”

As far as the biohackers are concerned, we are the best argument against intelligent design. Neither man has any illusions about how fringe biohacking is now. But technology marches on. “People say nobody is going to want to get surgery for this stuff,” admits Cannon. But he believes that will change. “They will or they will be left behind. They have no choice. It’s going to be weird and uncomfortable and scary. But you can do that, or you can become obsolete.”

(via Cyborg America: inside the strange new world of basement body hackers | The Verge)

An interesting project for life extension.

discoverynews:

Immortality for Humans by 2045

A Russian mogul wants to achieve cybernetic immortality for humans within the next 33 years. He’s pulled together a team intent on creating fully functional holographic human avatars that house our artificial brains.

The project’s ultimate goal is to save people from suffering and death. But just how likely is it that this project will succeed?

It seems to me the question should be, “Would you even want to do this?”

Do you want to know more…?

(via sagansense)