Paul Raven @ 24-04-2008
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?
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Paul Raven @ 02-04-2008
I feel sure we linked a story similar to this some time ago, but as a person with a deep and abiding mistrust of dentists (which has more to do with unnecessary work and overcharging than discomfort, to be fair), the news that scientists believe they are close to discovering a way to “remineralize” decayed teeth as an alternative to drillin’ and fillin’ is music to my ears. [image by Ian Hsu]
That having been said, I’d be willing to deal with drilling if it meant I could get a Bluetooth (arf!) microphone installed in my grill. Bam! [via grinding.be]
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Stephen Years @ 05-10-2007
Photo Credit: Mike Libby, Insect Lab
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding research that would embed insects with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) that would then in turn allow them to be controlled remotely. The program, dubbed “Hybrid-Insect MEMS” or ‘”HI-MEMS,” is funding three research groups at the University of Michigan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Boyce Thompson Institute.
The final milestone [of the project] will be flying a cyborg insect to within five meters of a specific target located some one hundred meters away using remote control or a global positioning system (GPS). If HI-MEMS passes this test successfully, then DARPA will probably begin breeding in earnest. Insect swarms with various sorts of different embedded MEMS sensors–video cameras, audio microphones, chemical sniffers and more–could then penetrate enemy territory in swarms to perform reconnaissance missions impossible or too dangerous for soldiers.
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