"Manhattan Project" For Prosthetic Arms

cortex tips us to a story about a nationwide effort to incorporate advanced technology into the next generation of prosthetic arms. Researchers for the DARPA-funded project are developing feedback techniques that range from sensors on the surface of the user's skin to electrodes implanted on the inside of the user's skull that intercept and interpret signals from the motor cortex. Quoting: "'Think about taking a sip from a can of soda,' Harshbarger says. The complex neural feedback system connecting a native limb to its user lets that user ignore an entire series of complicated steps. The nervous system makes constant automatic adjustments to ensure, for example, that the tilt of the wrist adjusts to compensate for the changing fluid level inside the can. The action requires little to no attention. Not so for the wearer of current prosthetic arms, for whom the act of taking a sip of soda precludes any other activity. The wearer must first consciously direct the arm to extend it to the correct point in space, then switch modes to rotate the wrist into proper position. Then he must open the hand, close it to grasp the soda can (not so weakly as to drop it but not so hard as to crush it), switch modes to bend the elbow to correctly place the can in front of his mouth, rotate the wrist into position, and then concentrate on drinking from the can of soda without spilling it."

Obvious

[rrohbeck]

Research into prosthetics always blooms during and after a war.
Of course it's a good thing for civil injuries too, but it's still a sad occasion.

Congratulations, son!

[Anonymous Coward]

Mobile Infantry made me the man I am today!

Re:Obvious

[Anonymous Coward]

Prosthetics hide the visible damage, and make it somewhat possible to function again on a physical level. But where is the influx of money for treating alcoholism, drug abuse, post traumatic stress disorder, lack of sexual appetite leading to divorce, alienation from your children, nightmares, hypervigillence leading to domestic and public violence, inability to settle causing homelessness, random startle responses and inappropriate behaviour that means you can't hold down a job, birth defects, depression and suicidal thoughts?????? (the list goes on and on ... )

War is hell and the ones who don't die are left to die every single day for the rest of their (often short) lives.

Although weapons that are _designed_ to maim rather than kill are banned we still manufacture and deploy them. Any war nerd will tell you, its well known, strategically, that if you can disable a man he's better than a dead soldier, because he keeps costing the enemy for as long as he lives.

Things were better when we fought with swords and most people died on the battlefield or a few hours later from their wounds.

The "cost of war" totted up by the bean counters is an order of magnitude out. Every poor bastard coming back from Iraq and Afganistan is going to keep on costing us, in rehabilitation, therapy, drugs, crime, social disorder, lost productivity. That's without factoring in the non-quantifiable, emotional costs, and the fact that we now have millions of angry enemies hell-bent on revenge.

This misadventure has cost us more than we will ever realize. Our economies are in ruins and still our hopeless leaders are too proud to give up the greedy addiction to oil and power.

I'm sure these guys would wish they'd never been lied to and had real arms and legs. Stories that try to put a positive spin on the ineffable horrors make me sick.