Prosthetic limbs are fairly common among amputees today, but the functionality they offer is limited. Most are mainly flesh-colored devices with a metal hook at the end to add a bit of usefulness.
Technological advancements (and some movie magic) in the past 20 or so years have greatly changed the development of prosthetic limbs. What once only belonged to a futuristic cyborg resembling California's governor is now becoming a reality for amputees.
I'd like to suggest the development of artificial, robotic limbs can be divided into three stages. The first, mimicking the kinetics of limb movement, is doing fairly well. With the advancement of actuators, materials, and integrated circuits, scientists and engineers can create a fairly good endoskeleton that can perform many of the movements of a real arm/hand. True, there is still an endless number of movement combinations that can be worked out, but as a whole, I think the mechanics of the arm are working well.
The second stage, the one that this entry's title alludes to, involves interfacing the arm with the brain. An Italian amputee participating in a study was recently able to control his robotic arm using his thoughts much like we control our limbs. During the one-month study, electrodes were connected to him, and he eventually gained to ability to move his fingers, make a fist, grab an object, even flip the bird. This is a huge advancement given the fact that in our bodies, nerves control each of the individual muscles involved in hand movement. As the article on Discovery.com mentions, scientists now need to research how long the electrodes can stay implanted in the body without an immune response. They also need to miniaturize the technology so the processing unit that joins the electrodes and the arm can fit into a feasible prosthetic device.
What is the third stage? It's implementing the sense of touch in the prosthetic arm. Once the user is able to control the movements of the prosthesis with his mind, the prosthesis will need to give him feedback, such as the amount of force he is applying, the temperature and texture of the surface the fingers and contacting, and of potentially hazardous extremes. One of the researchers working on this is a former professor of mine, Gerald Loeb, from the University of Southern California. Professor Loeb and his lab have created a device that mimics human skin in terms of sensation, inspired by a feature on our own hands called fingerprints.
I think advancements in prosthetic limbs are probably one of the most visible applications of biomedical engineering. Pretty much everyone know about cyborgs from popular media, and I think a lot of people would be amazed to see similar technology become a reality for amputees.
Learn More: Amputee 'Feels' Fingers For First Time With Robotic Hand [via Discovery.com]
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