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Medicine Robotics

Robotic Prostheses For Human Faces 111

holy_calamity writes "New Scientist reports on a patent application that suggests implanting polymer muscles beneath the skin of people suffering paralysis of the face to give them control of their features. The technique has already been used successfully to reanimate the eyelids of human cadavers. Movement could be returned to other facial features and even paralyzed limbs in the same way, the surgeons at University of California Davis say. The full patent application is also available on the WIPO site."
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Robotic Prostheses For Human Faces

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  • Great (Score:3, Interesting)

    by writerjosh ( 862522 ) * on Monday February 16, 2009 @06:49PM (#26878741) Homepage

    BORG or Skynet? Which is coming first?

  • by Ethanol-fueled ( 1125189 ) * on Monday February 16, 2009 @06:52PM (#26878823) Homepage Journal
    Partial facial paralysis hasn't done anything to Harm Sylvester Stallone's career.

    Or the rest of Hollywood, for that matter. Cosmetic paralytics like botox give the appearence of fewer wrinkles and stop microexpressions from giving away lies or other unpleasant emotions [boingboing.net], which is funny because they often cause a zombie-like facial expression. See: FoxNews.

    Humans are striving to give facial movement to corpses while they give away their own facial expressions to look like corpses.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 16, 2009 @09:31PM (#26880807)

    cuz I'm at work and can't create a profile

    years ago my mother suffered from Bells Palsy. In most of the cases of bells palsy the patient will regain full return of facial nerve control, however for my mother full control of her right eyelid and lip will never happen.

    I think that there will be some great uses for this and certainly not trying to bring anyone down, but it'd be nice to see my mom smile or wink again...now back to the robotic feces and flirty cadavers

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