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Bionic Arm Provides Hope for Amputees

Posted by Zonk on Thu Sep 14, 2006 12:48 PM
from the thinking-differently dept.
Biotech Science Technology
Static-MT writes to mention a CNN article about what doctors are referring to as the first thought-controlled artificial limb. Arm owner Jesse Sullivan has two prosthetic limbs, and the left one is an advanced prototype in development by the folks at DARPA. From the article: "Sullivan's bionic arm represents an advance over typical artificial arms, like the right-arm prosthesis he uses, which has a hook and operates with sequential motions. There is no perceivable delay in the motions of Sullivan's flesh-colored, plastic-like left arm. Until now, it has been nearly impossible to recreate the subtle and complex motion of a human arm."
+ -
story

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[+] DARPA Sponsoring Limb Regeneration Research 221 comments
fragmentate writes "Wired News is reporting: 'In response to the hundreds of soldiers coming home from war with missing arms or legs, Darpa is spending millions of dollars to help scientists learn how people might one day regenerate their own limbs. Prosthetics are getting better all the time, but they will never be as good as the limbs we were born with. So two teams of scientists at 10 institutions across the country are competing to regrow the first mammalian limb ... The researchers' first milestone is to generate a blastema — a mass of cells able to develop into various organs or body parts — in a mammal.' Apparently this is a relatively new area of research, even Wikipedia's stub on blastemas is very terse."
[+] Bionic Arm Might Go Into Clinical Trials 107 comments
prostoalex writes "The bionic arm project sponsored by DARPA is nearing completion, and might undergo clinical trials. 'The arm has motor control fine enough for test subjects to pluck chocolate-covered coffee beans one by one, pick up a power drill, unlock a door, and shake a hand. Six preconfigured grip settings make this possible, with names like chuck grip, key grip, and power grip. The different grips are shortcuts for the main operations humans perform daily.'"
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  • So he's no longer... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Kingrames (858416) on Thursday September 14 2006, @12:51PM (#16106543)
    ...Mostly 'armless?
  • I approve of this little internet thing of theirs too (sorry Al).

  • Hear hear (Score:5, Funny)

    by OSS_ilation (922367) on Thursday September 14 2006, @12:52PM (#16106564)
    Lets give this guy a hand.

  • Thought-controlled? (Score:3, Funny)

    by payndz (589033) on Thursday September 14 2006, @12:54PM (#16106585)
    But does he have to "theeeenk in Rrrrrussian"?

  • And it only cost 6 million dollars... (Score:4, Funny)

    by MrSenile (759314) on Thursday September 14 2006, @12:54PM (#16106590)
    We can rebuild him.

    Rebuild him... better... stronger... faster...

  • The next step (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rob_squared (821479) <rob.squared@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Thursday September 14 2006, @12:55PM (#16106597)
    What I'd really like to see is the other end of the equation, actual touch perception. And I don't mean if you feel the shock when hitting something with the arm, I mean feeling textures, or perhaps it'd be easier to start off with hot/cold sensors, since we know how to do that with existing equipment.
    • "What I'd really like to see is the other end of the equation, actual touch perception. And I don't mean if you feel the shock when hitting something with the arm, I mean feeling textures, or perhaps it'd be easier to start off with hot/cold sensors, since we know how to do that with existing equipment." Honestly, I think that's not important in the least right now. Perfecting this arm for motion would be far more important right now. The sheer idea of having a useable ARM is simple wonderful for an ampute

      • Re:The next step (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Doc Ruby (173196) on Thursday September 14 2006, @01:19PM (#16106889) Homepage Journal
        Easy for you to say (assuming your nervous system is intact). Every para/quadraplegic ("paralyzed") person I know has told me they much prefer getting senation back than motion. We already have all kinds of tech for motion that need not be bionic - down to the crutch. But sensation is even more important to feeling human. And in various scenarios, we're all blind/deaf/numb.

        This bionic arm is is an excellent advance, and worthy of every congratulation. But when talking about "the next step", the experts say it's sensation.

    • Re:The next step (Score:5, Informative)

      by plalonde2 (527372) <plalonde AT telus DOT net> on Thursday September 14 2006, @01:12PM (#16106812)
      If you check out the various videos, they also have a short demo of touch: the same re-wiring of nerves to the pectoral muscle can be used for feedback. In the case of the female patient, she has two fingers worth of touch, and it's pressure sensitive.
      Very impressive.
      • the same re-wiring of nerves to the pectoral muscle can be used for feedback. In the case of the female patient, she has two fingers worth of touch,

        So when you shake her bionic hand, she feels it on her chest?

        Oh man, this is gonna be good...

        • Re:The next step (Score:5, Interesting)

          by giblfiz (125533) on Thursday September 14 2006, @02:50PM (#16107875)
          I know this was a joke, but actually it's pretty interesting. She doesn't feel it on her chest she feels it on her arm (the one that isn't their anymore). The weird thing is that their are parts of her chest that you can poke her in, and she will feel it in her arm (so its sort of the opposite of what you were suggesting)

          This, of course is the result of some pretty cutting edge surgery.
        • +1 Funny.

          But seriously, the nice deal about this is that she feels it in her fingers, not her chest. That's the nice thing about re-routing the nerves. The chest is just a nice, large, convenient landing spot.
    • What I'd really like to see is the other end of the equation, actual touch perception.
      Just allow me to turn the nerve coupling off when I need to chop wood or stir boiling soup with my bare robo-hands.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Actually tactile sensation and feedback to the user IS part of this program. There are groups at UC Irvine, Oakridge, and SSSA (in Italy) developing sensors while Univ. Utah and Chicago PT groups are working on haptic feedback systems. If successful this project will truly revolutionize prosthetics.

      And for those who have commented that the sensation of touch would be "icing on the cake" but that movement is more important, I urge you to check out various research that has shown that without systems for affe

  • Only The Begining (Score:5, Interesting)

    by loose electron (699583) on Thursday September 14 2006, @01:00PM (#16106669) Homepage
    Medical electronics are just entering a new age.

    Research now ongoing that I am aware of:
    -- Transponder system to provide electronic relay between severed spinal cord sections.
    -- Artificial eye that connects to the optic nerve.

    Those two are "out there" with no products out in time for christmas. :)

    However there are heaps of things now on the market (pacemakers, insulin pumps, etc, etc)
    and more to come. All for the good.
    • Research now ongoing that I am aware of:
      -- Transponder system to provide electronic relay between severed spinal cord sections.
      -- Artificial eye that connects to the optic nerve.

      Links? I'm especially interested in the artificial eye, since I'm blind in one eye myself. I'm sure there are plenty of other Slashdot readers who would be equally interested in learning more about these projects.
  • Wow this is a really great breakthrough at least as far as the article describes it but there are a lot of unanswered questions.

    The mechanism is basically built by connecting the way other nerves and muscles in the body operate when you do a voluntary action such as clenching your hand or flexing your arm. However this is just the muscle patterns and nerve synapses of one man.

    If there is one thing I learned from my failed pre-med career it was that all human bodies interact differently. How will this work
    • Probably no need, since your brain is fairly adept at re-wiring itself to adapt to new motor controls. Between your brain and a computer, your brain is ultimately better at that kind of fine-tuning.

  • The Singularity is Near (Score:3, Funny)

    by SevenHands (984677) on Thursday September 14 2006, @01:03PM (#16106713)
    I am AllStar, A Robot. I can put my arm back on. You can too!

    Ahhh, childhood memories...
  • MIT's Technology Review had a similar article [technologyreview.com] in july.

    the have videos (.MOV) of a patient controlling a computer cursor [technologyreview.com] and a prosthetic hand [technologyreview.com]

  • hope? (Score:3, Informative)

    by blackmonday (607916) on Thursday September 14 2006, @01:05PM (#16106729) Homepage
    I get a little irked at the "hope for amputees thing". One of my best friends has an arm to the elbow only, and he doesn't need any hope - he's just fine. He has adapted well, and there are few things he cannot do. He has a fake arm for cosmetic reasons, and it helps him to grip simple things, but lets get real. Amputees are not hopeless, they can do most things you and I can do, and frankly some of them (my friend included) put their two-limb friends to shame with their dexterity.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by joeytmann (664434)
      But if given the oppertunity I bet your friend would like to have a prostectic that works more like a real arm. No one is calling him or other amputees hopeless, just trying to make an adequate replacement for the real thing.

    • Yeah, OK, you're politically correct. That's nice.

      So your friend - and many others with him have adapted. But ask any of them whether they'd like to get their hands back.
      I know I would, in their place, adapted or not.

    • Dang straight (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cascadingstylesheet (140919) on Thursday September 14 2006, @01:30PM (#16107027)
      >I get a little irked at the "hope for amputees thing". One of my best
      >friends has an arm to the elbow only, and he doesn't need any hope -
      >he's just fine.

      Yep. My son was born with no arms or legs, and he is amazing. He's still just a baby (OK, almost "toddler") and he rolls everywhere, manipulates stuff with his arm stubs (1" or less), and just astounds us with what he can do.

      He's being fitted for a "training arm" with no elbow now (a lengthy process of taking molds, making "test sockets", checking the fit, coming back, etc.), and I have no idea how he's going to react when he actually gets it. It'll be cool for some things, but I bet his first reaction will be to be ticked off that he can't roll so easily :)

    • Re:hope? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by cnelzie (451984) on Thursday September 14 2006, @01:49PM (#16107231) Homepage
      I bet your friend would like to have a fully functional normal hand back.

          This technology provides the hope, that one day, in his lifetime, the technology will be available in order for him to have a replacement limb that functions exactly as his original meat grown hand functioned.

          That's all the "hope" that was being talked about. Nobody said that people missing limbs are hopeless or completely incapable of adapting.

          I have hope that someday Overly Politically Correct Blinded people will once again be able to open their eyes and see that not everything is as terrible and cynical as they like to make it out to be.
    • You're exactly right. Amputees don't need hope, since they're able to adapt and do just fine as they are. So we're going to immediately stop all research into medical treatments for amputations or paralysis, prosthetic limbs, etc. as none of these people actually need these things.

      -- the medical community
  • Sweet, just like Luke Skywalker has. I can't wait until these are available for elective surgery (hey Doc, just lop off righty and give me the super-bionic arm). Add this to my Chiba City shopping list, along with the brain implant so I can jack in to the Metaverse.

    Cool links. [blogspot.com]
  • When will this technology cross the line from being restorative (for amputees) and become (for super-soldiers) augmentative?

    Don't think DARPA hasn't already put this on the projected timeline.
    • Well considering that they tried to program super dolphins, I wouldn't put it past them to make super people. (or was that even DARPA?)
    • When will this technology cross the line from being restorative (for amputees) and become (for super-soldiers) augmentative?

      Don't think DARPA hasn't already put this on the projected timeline.
      how is this surprising? it's not some vast conspiracy that the government is trying to hide.

      haven't many of our technological and medical advancement been made in the quest for military empowerment?
      • I should hope they don't limit any augmentative technology to just super-soldiers. I, for one, would like to have superhuman capabilities without having to join the Army.
  • I think there is great future in bionics. In addition to limbs as discussed in this submission, scientists have various approaches to bionic sight [wired.com] as well. This subject is truly fascinating. Here is a BBC article on a different project [bbc.co.uk].

    Interestingly and unfortunately, much advanced and successful bionics research is being done in South America because of restrictive laws in more typical countries. While I understand the need to protect patients, research for a paper I wrote two years ago indicates tha

  • Oblig. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Klowner (145731) on Thursday September 14 2006, @01:10PM (#16106796) Homepage
    And that's why you ALWAYS leave a note.

  • Marital aide? (Score:3, Funny)

    by PIPBoy3000 (619296) on Thursday September 14 2006, @01:57PM (#16107334)
    What if he thinks "vibrate quickly"?
  • CNN Reported on this way back in March [cnn.com], what's changed between then and now??

    More information on Jesse Sullivan [wikipedia.org]

    Or better yet, lets Digg [digg.com] the story posted 174 days ago!
    • ...what's changed between then and now?

      That's [cbsnews.com] not Jesse Sullivan. The AP report circulating today was in advance of a press conference to introduce Claudia Mitchell, the first woman to receive one of these arms.

  • Wait, wasn't this the premise for a sketch in the MST3K version of "The Crawling Hand" or something?

  • Major Kusanagi? Is that you? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by vertinox (846076) on Thursday September 14 2006, @02:04PM (#16107409)
    So when do get full prosthetic bodies?

    Or at least one like hers?

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