Man Controls Cybernetic Hand With Thoughts 81
MaryBethP writes "Scientists in Italy announced Wednesday that Pierpaolo Petruzziello, a 26-year-old Italian who had lost his left forearm in a car accident, was successfully linked to an artificial limb that was controlled by electrodes implanted in his arm and connected to the median and ulnar nerves. He has learned to control the artificial limb with his mind. According to CNet, Petruzziello says he could feel sensations in it, as if the lost arm had grown back again. The BBC has a brief video showing the arm in operation."
Re:This raises important questions... (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=The+Stranger [urbandictionary.com]
Re:This raises important questions... (Score:3, Informative)
No, he still gets sensation. That's actually a technology that's been around for a couple of years, now. The nerves that used to go to the tips of the fingers are surgically relocated to convenient locations where the prosthetic will be mounted, and appropriate sensory devices are built into the fingers, which in turn, relay that sensory data back to the appropriate nerve endings. The net result is that the person wearing the arm gets the distinct tactile sensations from his missing limb, via the artificial limb.
One of the things I find interesting about modern prosthetic limbs, is that the advanced models can actually have the ability to react to nerve impulses faster than the user's real muscles.