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Science fiction to medical reality: the bionic arm
March 24th, 2010 by GenePodcast: Play in new window | Download
It used to be that you could only find the bionic man or woman in science fiction. Biomedical engineers are changing that. Stay tuned.
If you wanted to see bionic arms or legs in action, you used to have to look back to 1970s television shows or Star Wars movies. Now, those fantasies are moving off the screen and into real life.
A young woman who lost an arm at the shoulder in a motorcycle accident is using a computer-controlled, electric-powered arm to do almost everything her own arm could do. Peel and eat a piece of fruit. Fold clothes. Even wash the dishes. And maybe best of all, all she has to do is think about what she wants to do, and it happens.
It works like this. Doctors moved the ends of the nerves that used to connect to her mangled arm to her chest. Electrodes on a harness detect tiny electric signals from those nerves and transmit them to a miniature computer. The computer translates them into signals that control small electric motors in her new arm and hand. When she wants to pick up an apple from the kitchen table, she thinks it and her arm, hand and fingers do it.
One problem: the arm and hand have no sense of touch. But everything else seems to be working fine.
Our arm isn’t computer controlled, but it’s still time to close the mike and leave. See you next time.
Engineering Works! is made possible by Texas A&M Engineering and produced by KAMU-FM in College Station. Learn more about engineering. Visit us on the World Wide Web:
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For more:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MedicalMysteries/story?id=5715902&page=1
http://www.ric.org/aboutus/mediacenter/press/2007/07302007.aspx
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I’ve read about this subject many times but you make some key points not raised anywhere else. Thanks.
How long does it take to learn and become fluid in your motions? maybe we can move a step better like using the brains signals to control it wirelessly.
I don’t remember; it’s been a while since I read the background material, but I have the impression that it wasn’t too long. Of course, I realize that “wasn’t too long” covers a lot of ground, but it’s the best I can do.
Gene.
Sense of touch is far more complex than this.Still some basic simulations can be made.