If I were the Globe and Mail, I’d hire better tech support because their current group seems to be ignorant of anything but XP/Vista.

Yes, and can you imagine what the Cyberkinetics device could do in a light-composite suit of battle armor?

Didn’t they have that in Starship Troopers (the book not the lame movie…).

Yes, and can you imagine what the Cyberkinetics device could do in a light-composite suit of battle armor?

…with shoulder mounted laser! lmao

What the f$%k are you talking about?

doriangrey on July 27, 2007 at 6:38 PM

He’s talking about fighting it from silos, Minuteman III style.

What the f$%k are you talking about?

correction the maker is a Scottish firm Touch Bionics.

Opp’s…my bad…sorry…

This is amazing stuff.

No not even close. He has none of the things I mentioned. Currently he has independent control of his thumb and forefinger, which is to say that he can articulate at will his thumb and forefinger to some degree however his other three fingers are on a programmed pattern, he has no tactile feedback and the servos do not respond in real time.

The developments I mention are the difference between having a prosthesis that functions just like a human hand and having a sophisticated claw. Right now he has the very substantial benefit of having a prosthesis that looks remarkably like a human hand while performing a limited functionality of a hand.

I have no doubt that the functionality I describe is being worked on and probably isn’t very far off, but its not there yet.

Franklin Hill on July 27, 2007 at 3:51 PM

Thanks, this is exactly what I was think about. The combination of these technologies will undoubtedly result in a prosthesis capable of the full range of articulation and sensory feed back of a human limb. Not as good as having an actual human limb, but the next best thing.

Myoelectricity, the electricity that iThe s generated from somatic muscle nerves, is already used to to turn motors either forward or backward. In other words, it’s a digital ones-and-zeroes technology.

That, as opposed to DNI, which would feel almost like never having lost a limb. It would certainly take some getting used to for a newly-implanted prosthesis, but to be able to actually decode what nerve signals mean would be the largest leap forward in biology since the Human Genome Project concluded.

The future is now.

Bionic arms that fire pulsed energy. Just like Mega Man.

PRCalDude on July 27, 2007 at 3:08 PM

+

And as many of these young veteran amputees age, enter the workforce, and become progressively more wealthy, the demand for increasingly more effective products can only grow.

Blacklake on July 27, 2007 at 3:32 PM

=

Drill attachments or things like this. Tried to find one of him cooking, but if you’ve seen the movie you’ll remember.

- The Cat

P.S. When do we can helicopter attachments for the top of the head?

Can it crush a beer can?

If there’s an upside to be found in IED casualties, I suppose it’s that increased demand will drive prosthetic developments like these–small consolation to those affected, of course, but at least it’s something. And as many of these young veteran amputees age, enter the workforce, and become progressively more wealthy, the demand for increasingly more effective products can only grow. So it will indeed be interesting to see what’s available in coming decades (assuming, of course, that the Calliphate and/or Hillarycare doesn’t mandate a return to hooks and wooden pegs).

I gotta know this stuff before I sign up for the upgrade.

doriangrey on July 27, 2007 at 3:23 PM

But that’s pretty much the same thing, right?

Hmm, I was thinking more along the full independent digit articulation with tactile feedback and real time servo response.

This technology is so new just imagine what it will be like in 5, 10 or 20 years…

doriangrey on July 27, 2007 at 2:45 PM

Bionic arms that fire pulsed energy. Just like Mega Man.