Prosthetic “fluidhand” raises the bar
Via Warren Ellis’s grinders, I present to you: the Fluidhand!
“The flexible drives are located directly in the movable finger joints and operate on the biological principle of the spider leg – to flex the joints, elastic chambers are pumped up by miniature hydraulics. In this way, index finger, middle finger and thumb can be moved independently. The prosthetic hand gives the stump feedback, enabling the amputee to sense the strength of the grip.”
Prosthetics and exoskeletal tech are really making strides (arf!) at the moment. I don’t think it’s science fictional to suggest that we’ll be seeing prosthetic limbs that equal the functionality of the organic originals within a decade. [image borrowed from linked Physorg article]
But there’ll still be a stigma attached to having one, because of the aesthetic issues; it’ll be longer than a decade before there’s a false limb that would pass for a real one.
Maybe they’d become a badge of pride in certain industries or regions - among veterans of ideological conflicts, perhaps? And what about the possibility of elective prosthetics - people choosing to replace limbs that had nothing wrong with them?
April 25th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
The race is on between the prosthetics makers and the limb regrowers. Scientific American had a good piece on the latter last month.
My money is on the regrowers, although prosthetics are helping a lot of people every day.
April 26th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
“… there’ll still be a stigma attached to having one, because of the aesthetic issues…”
I think prosthetics can look awesome, when designed honestly. Lose the nasty fake fingertips, and that hand would look great to me. Nobody should have beat-up plastic skin-tone manikin parts attached to them.
April 27th, 2008 at 2:33 am
I’d honestly rather have a permanent black glove, a la Luke Skywalker.