Bionic Arms, brought to you by the makers of Segway.

[FoolKiller]

This is cool on a truly epic level.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,464187,00.html

Segway Inventor Builds Bionic Arm for Wounded GIs
Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The man behind the Segway scooter has a new invention: bionic arms for wounded soldiers.

Called the "Luke Arm" after the prosthetic hand sported by Luke Skywalker in the "Star Wars" movies, Dean Kamen's device is lightweight, self-contained and fully capable of picking up grapes, baby bottles, even electric drills.

Kamen says the Department of Defense approached him and his company, DEKA, in 2005 about the project, not the other way around.

"This guy visits and basically says, 'Look, we've had 1,600 kids go over [to Iraq] and lose an arm. Two dozen have lost two,'" Kamen tells Newsweek in a story for next week's issue. "'At the end of the Civil War, we gave them a hook on a stick. Now we give them a hook at the end of a plastic tube.'"

The Luke Arm has four fingers and an opposable thumb, and was designed to be controlled by muscular movement in the wearer's remaining limbs.

But thanks to neurological advances in "targeted renervation" by Dr. Todd Kuiken of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the Luke Arm can now connect directly to motor nerves, meaning it can be controlled purely by thought alone.

And the nerve connections are two-way: The wearer gets "force feedback" about his own grip and movements, allowing him to pick up an empty water bottle without crushing it.

And just to show how life imitates art:

The question is, can these soldiers go back into battle with this? And would it be possible to enhance their previously natural abilities with this?

 

[TheCracker]

This is Segway. I'm thinking more Steve Austin than Bionic Commando

 

[FoolKiller]

This is Segway. I'm thinking more Steve Austin than Bionic Commando

Well, looking at the picture of the arm, which I also added to the OP, it made me think more of Bionic Commando. Especially considering we are just talking arms, not head-to-toe Steve Austin style.

I am now pateintly waiting for the first person to confuse The Six Million Dollar Man for the wrestler.

 

[Omnis]

I'd love to work in cyborg tech if I wasn't pursuing radiology.

 

[Joey D]

Very cool technology and hopefully will be able to help many people. To bad this will inflate Kamen's ego and make him even more of a d-bag though. I was part of FIRST throughout high school and met this guy a couple of times, very smart but his ego was the size of Texas.

 

[FoolKiller]

Very cool technology and hopefully will be able to help many people. To bad this will inflate Kamen's ego and make him even more of a d-bag though. I was part of FIRST throughout high school and met this guy a couple of times, very smart but his ego was the size of Texas.

While it may be annoying, his ego may be justified based on his technical prowess.

Also, click the link to the article on Fox News and in the related articles stuff is at least one more article regarding Segway creators doing other things.


And looking at that arm, I think the creators need to get with Hollywood effects guys to work on realistic looking skin and a way to recalibrate the feedback so that it works with it. Then and only then will I accept the Luke Arm title.

 

[Stevisiov]

I wonder if you can get knuckle duster attachments with those

 

[Zrow]

This is Segway. I'm thinking more Steve Austin than Bionic Commando

Hey dummy, Steve Austen is a wrestler.

 

[buickgnx88]

Hey dummy, Steve Austen is a wrestler.

Hey dummy, it's spelled Austin.

 

[McLaren]

While an amazing piece of technology, I can also see this just as well becoming another centerfold for weapons technology 5-10 years from now.

 

[Omnis]

And looking at that arm, I think the creators need to get with Hollywood effects guys to work on realistic looking skin and a way to recalibrate the feedback so that it works with it. Then and only then will I accept the Luke Arm title.

Absolutely. They should be calling in the Anakin Arm until they get some skin over it.

 

[jag65]

First off I would like to say that the arm is a neat and hopefully will prove useful to those who have lost an arm. Secondly I have a geogaphical significance to DEKA due to my close proximity to the building. It is in the mill building next door to my school and I drive by it every day. It just seems so strange that something that is greeting national attention is being created less than a stones throw from where I am sitting right now.

 

[bergauk]

Meh, I could write up a story about my life as an amputee, but that would be boring. I think its stupid that the military has actually approached a company to create a bionic arm. If I had the choice to have a bionic arm or remain as I am right now, I think I'd just take my current state as I'd rather not have more of my arm amputated to make way for a silly device that will make me sit in physical therapy for a few years to learn how to operate it.

 

[FoolKiller]

Meh, I could write up a story about my life as an amputee, but that would be boring. I think its stupid that the military has actually approached a company to create a bionic arm. If I had the choice to have a bionic arm or remain as I am right now, I think I'd just take my current state as I'd rather not have more of my arm amputated to make way for a silly device that will make me sit in physical therapy for a few years to learn how to operate it.

I understand your point of view, but for some people accepting a sudden life change like that is not what they want.

If this can help guys that would otherwise take it too hard and get down on themselves and eventually become depressed alcoholics, or commit suicide, then it can only be a good thing.

It is an option for some people to feel like their old selves. In the cases they are looking at here I think that they are looking at replacing the arm ASAP. As it is actually working with your existing nervous system's set up I would imagine that the learning period would be minimal in that case.

Now, in your case where it has been a long time I could see it requiring therapy and even retraining your nervous system. I had a stroke and personally know the effort required in therapy to rework the nervous system, and can see how it wouldn't be worth it to someone who has been happily living their life without it for years.

I think the long-term prospects are amazing, because how big of a leap toward a Robocop type idea is this? It uses your own nervous system for control? Could that be applied to things that use automated signals from the brain, like artificial organs? Could we eventually see Bicentennial Man style replacements for body parts? Could it eventually mean that we continue living as long as the brain is functioning?

 

[Gil]

Meh, I could write up a story about my life as an amputee, but that would be boring. I think its stupid that the military has actually approached a company to create a bionic arm. If I had the choice to have a bionic arm or remain as I am right now, I think I'd just take my current state as I'd rather not have more of my arm amputated to make way for a silly device that will make me sit in physical therapy for a few years to learn how to operate it.

As a former Physical Rehab nurse, and a recipient of physical therapy following a shoulder injury and subsequent surgical repair, I believe that while YOU might be happy as you are, most people would be happier to have that missing appendage back.

I hated having my arm hanging nearly useless because of a tiny tear in my rotator cuff. That's with the arm still there. I would have truly hated having it gone.

Secondly, from this point, it is only a matter of time before this technology will be able to help paraplegics, by enabling "retraining" of different nerve groups to enable ambulation.

 

[Tornado]

GitS by 2015.