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Woman with bionic arm regains sense of touch

telegraph.co.uk — A woman fitted with the world's first "bionic arm" controlled by thought alone has been given back a sense of feeling.

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  • sabotank, on 10/12/2007, -22/+4now she can have bionic fingerbanging fun!!
  • brstilson, on 10/12/2007, -1/+53Haven't scientists watched Star Wars? Bionic limbs lead to the dark side.
    • Cruelapollo, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5I didn't look in to EU, but what about Luke?
    • samk, on 10/12/2007, -14/+4Only someone under 35 would think of Star Wars first when he hears about bionics. :)
    • mekongcola, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2She's the worlds first cyborg?
    • dggeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@samk
      Hey, it's true! I would think most people would think of the Bionic Woman or Six Million Dollar Man.

      Heck, and I'm nowhere near 35.
    • BobbyMC, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1Luke turned evil, someone killed him and they cloned him so he could be good Luke again.
  • chrisinsocalif, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3Coming next, a bionic Wiener.
  • Kericr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+31Sign me up when she gets the buster cannon upgrade.
    • Atomic1fire, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1da da da da da inspector gadget da da da da do do
      wait wrong show
  • jdryyz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13"We can rebuild HER."

    • tisfl37, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Make her faster, and stronger... we have the technology...
    • Kericr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+25We only have $6.
    • KyjL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12...But I don't want to spend a lot of money.
  • GreySpec, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4This is a fascinating and exciting step forward into Open-System robotics. I can't wait to have my own fully functional sex goddess!
    • Gerz1219, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Dude, join a gym or take a yoga class or something. Are you really planning on not having sex until they invent lifelike sex robots in about 50 years? I'd write more, but it's Friday night and I have to go meet my girl at a bar.
  • mandarin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Pretty amazing stuff. Dont you just wish they can do this at a more larger scale? For a lot of handicapped people ?
    • Tiak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If each of those handicapped people have a couple million to pay for their limbs, sure...
    • JEmerson, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0"I guess this is just the beginning, if it worked for her it'll work for others. I'm happy because it removes cloning advocates' main argument: replacing limbs."

      Out of curiosity, what is it about cloning that you're so dead set against? It just seems a bit odd to have the patients best interests as only a peripheral issue, and the methods to get there be the main focus.
  • raithetarkon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is amazing... its good to see so much research done in this field. Just think... eventually they will be virtually indistinguishable from regular body parts. Being an amputee will only be a temporary thing, and people who were told they would never walk again will be able to.
  • picto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I'm thinking about getting metal legs...it's a risky operation, but it'll be worth it.
    • russellnation, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5You would if you had robot ears.
    • scrimaxinc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2dugg for amazing movie reference......

      SHIIIIT'S WEEEAAAAK!!!!!!
    • shadysheaf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3nice quote bobby, that was hot.
    • Rhelim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This isn't brown, this is Bronzed.
    • DaMacGamer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i do not want to be kicked in the balls by you.
    • evilbeatfarmer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Don't slit your wrists yet Kain.
  • aphexcoil, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4How does she take a shower?
  • russellnation, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6That is the coolest thing I think I've ever seen, but I am really high, so......
  • gmiley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Pretty sweet if you ask me, but if I ever needed one of those then I think I would opt out of having flesh-tone "skin" and just go with the bare metal arm. Chicks dig cyborgs right?
  • computermatt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1shouldn't this be with science????
  • r0ck3tm4nn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6AdSense ad to this article:

    "Arm Liposuction $3400! 1 Hour Painless Procedure. Drive yourself home. Beverly Hills."

    Silly AdSense, wouldn't be so necessary with a bionic arm, no wouldn't it?
  • LucidDr34m3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+26Wow. This is big. Maybe not for you but it sure is for me. I suffer from a condition called brachial plexus palsy which basically means that due to severe nerve trauma in my neck, I have severely limited use of my arm. Roughly... 10% of normal use. Zero use of my fingers. Zero use of my wrist. Minor use of my elbow and shoulder.

    This right here gives people with amputations and disabilities the chance to eventually be NORMAL. Not just "better". When this science is complete, you won't even be able to tell they are using prosthetics without looking very very closely. If it gets to this point in my lifetime, I will amputate and replace my arm with a bionic one. Some tasks that most people find trivial, us with disabilities find very difficult (although we usually find unconventional means to solve these problems). They said she was cutting food. This is one of the issues I have the hardest time with. Imagine if any time you went on a date and ordered steak, you had to say in front of your date that you need your food pre-cut, and then the waitress making a big deal about it at the table. You have no idea what I would give to be able to easily cut my steak. I just hope they become better at getting fine motor function working. I would love trying to type two handed with a bionic hand.

    Absolutely fantastic. Gives me hope, and gives hope to others who are far worse off than me.

    /dugg
    • gwalbridge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5How do you type on your computer?

      I'm seriously not trying to be an ass, just asking how you type stuff with your condition.
    • LucidDr34m3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I just type one handed. Pretty darn fast too. Everyone always asks me how I do it. Mostly I have to look at the keyboard, and "know" when I make a typing error. Looking for them in the text takes too long. Try it. Look at the keys and use one hand to type. If you need to type more than one character in caps back to back, use Caps Lock.
    • jwe8k, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I remember reading a while back that the Japanese had come up with a sort of robotic exoskeleton for people with limited muscular use. It allows people who are too weak to walk, etc. You would get to keep your arm, only you'd have a robotic sleeve that enhances it. Combined with this nerve-reading tech, the future is bright for folks with limited mobility. I grew up with a friend who was born with no arms. This would be great for him.
    • jwe8k, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Here's the exoskeleton I was talking about:
      http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18624945.800
    • ldkronos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm not trying to be a downer and remove your hope, but would this even work?

      If you say the nerve trauma is in your neck, then wouldn't you have the same problem with an artificial limb? My understanding is that these things work by just tying in to the nerves that normally run down into your limb and reacting to the signals the same way a normal limb would (with some variation, which is why physical therapy is usually necessary). If the signal can't make it properly to a real limb, I would imagine it wouldn't make it to an artificial one either.
    • NanoStuff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Not to shatter your hopes, but if the problem is with nerves in your neck I don't see how this would be of benefit. The technology was not designed to interfere with nerves in that location. I'm also skeptical that it would give you more mobility than you currently have. Just a matter of time, but not quite there.
    • Tiak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Technicly it could still work for him as was mentioned in the previous articles on this (dugg a couple months ago), this arm uses nerves for the pectoralis muscles in addition to apparently nerves from the actual arm.
    • EricAnderton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"I would love trying to type two handed with a bionic hand."

      At the rate they're moving forward with this NRT (nerve relocation therapy) stuff, they might just provide a USB option somewhere down the line (like a port on the arm itself). Seriously, form follows function after all. Why bother with slow moving servos when you can just tickle the pins on a microchip instead?
    • LucidDr34m3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Your right, there s no guarantee it would work for me, or anyone for that matter, as each case is different. However, what they are doing is reconnecting nerves in the shoulder. These nerves travel up farther into the brain as well. The damaged section could be bypassed by going straight to the source. Don't get me wrong, I'm not planning my life around getting something like this, but it is definitely something great in the works. Theoretically, all you need is the brain signals, and input and output can be done there directly. And even if it doesn't work for me, it will work for others. The location of my injury is in the lower neck, close to the shoulder. If you are more interested, fire up wiki and look for the brachial plexus. I'm fine with my condition, but it would be really nice to have something like this. The feeling part is equally exciting, I have no feeling below my elbow. I often find blood on my pants and am confused how it got there just to find out that I whacked my arm on something.

      As for alternative typing methods, those would be equally exciting. However keyboards are a bit of an industry standard right now, and if they stay that way, improving my speeds while using them would be great.

      This whole thing still is a work in progress, but the future of this technology is really bright.
    • bswopes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Nice. Have you looked at using one of the dvorak 1 hand keyboard mappings?
    • LucidDr34m3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I've looked at them, but I decided to not go with it. Reason being is that I feel it is really important to not require special accomodations. If I would have gotten used to this new mapping, I'd wan to use it most of the time... but I use several different terminals and machines each day... I'd rather just be accustomed to the normal qwerty keyboards. Merely an opinion, but I type quite fast as is, so I find no need to change. I think it would just turn into a hassle.

      I really don't mind questions at all by the way. It's quite..... refreshing even. If anyone has more, please ask.
    • mikesbaker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yeah. I'm thinking of getting metal legs. It's a risky operation, but it'll be worth it.
  • CopyNinja, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4One step closer to my dream of being completely cyborg'ed.
  • TheHappyRobot, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1youtube or it didn't happen!
  • fullmetal, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Ha Fullmetal what a coincidence that's my tag name.
  • VeryBoredNow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Some douchebag in my dreams named Morpheous warned me of this .... weird.
  • 3RNC77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0They need to hook up the sergeant that lost three limbs with this stuff!
  • dorianh49, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5From the article: "Now doctors have re-routed the ends of arm nerves to a patch of skin on her chest — allowing her to regain the sensation of having her lost hand touched.... If someone touches the patch of skin on her chest it feel as if they are touching her hand."

    So, if her eyes are closed, she'll never know if you're holding her hand or going for second base?!!
  • gamefreak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1War leads to the best technological innovations. Maybe sad, but true.
    • Tiak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Was being developed pre-war... I believe one of the previous diggs (a couple months ago) mentioned a fairly long history of development.
    • bswopes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2She lost the arm in a motorcycle accident.
  • Embrace, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Resistance is futile.
  • philipacamaniac, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The title of the article is slightly inaccurate. They rerouted her hand/elbow/arm-feeling nerves to a patch of muscle on her chest. They didn't add any touch sensors in to the prosthesis. Meaning, she can feel her hand being touched, but only when you touch her chest. The real breakthrough will be when the can put in touch sensors and route those electrons back to rerouted feeling nerves in her chest.

    So how soon until we see total-limb replacement therapy? And how many artificial organs can you have until you're considered unstable?
    • clyde2801, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i know plenty of women with no artifical limbs that are unstable, dude.
  • Bhatch514, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Was it the OCP corporation that build that arm?

    "Dead or alive, your comming with me" - Murfey, Robocop.
  • ThecNiqueMan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've already seen a similar news about a man who has lost both arms. He became the first bionic man with a robotic arm, left arm too. The arm was connected to his chest muscles etc...Anyways he said he could feel; cool, heat, pressure.
    2 or 3 years ago.
  • hockey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I want the upgrade that plugs a guitar hero controller directly into your arm.

    Can you imagine the shred potential?
  • EvilTesdall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0wasn't this already done to a farmer from the mid-west who lost his arms in a farming accident? (it was on msn.com alsmost 6 months to a year ago)...cool then ....cool now...
  • climbon321, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2But does it run linux?
    • luminousnerd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Anything runs linux ^_^ just gotta work at it (or if you're feeling particularly lazy, leave the other Linux geeks to work at it, it won't be long).
  • 1dog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I would like to meet a Woman with bionic legs
  • SkittlesUSA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes but can she pat her head and rub her stomach at the same time?
  • Ap31r0n, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0One more step till those that run things can kill everyone.


    /puts on tinfoil hat
  • dcpar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I, for one, welcome our new cybernetic queen overlord
  • tyywebb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Tetsuooooo!!!!!!!
  • picto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Anyone else think it's funny how this article is categorized under "Mods"?
  • clyde2801, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1does it go "na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na" when she uses it?

    cause that would be cool
  • luminousnerd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What idiot wrote that article? Bionic arms are very old, they are commonplace now. I've seen people with them before, I met a guy who owns a place that does nothing but manufacture bionic arms and hands! I even tried one out for myself! They're old, they've been around a long time, this is nothing special.
  • allonline, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0If a bionic leg was run by windows would you have spend half your day booting yourself up to get going.

    Perhaps this is this guys secret system.
    "The Muscle Gain Truth No-Fail System". He did it without drugs or steroids, without endless hours in the gym, and months... And wants to teach YOU how to do the same...
    http://www.onyourpc.com

    cut your arms off and replace them in one day.
  •  

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