Prosthetics Keep Marching Forward: Fiber Optic Cables Work With Nerves
57 replies, posted
[quote=Popsci.com][img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/PSC0111HL339.jpg[/img]
The Six Million Dollar Man’s robotic arm worked as seamlessly as his natural one. But in the real world, robotic limbs have limited motions and the user can’t feel what he or she is “touching.” a new approach using optical fibers implanted around nerves could transmit more data and let prosthetics speak to the brain.
Previously, scientists surgically connected electrodes to the nervous system, but they seemed to harm the body’s tissues, making the implant fail within months. In 2005, scientists discovered that they could stimulate a neuron to send a message by shining infrared light on it. Last September, DARPA, the Pentagon’s R&D branch, awarded $4 million to a project led by Southern Methodist University engineers to attempt to connect nerves to artificial limbs using fiber optics.
The team suspects that flexible glass or polymer fiber optics will be more flesh-friendly than rigid electrodes. In addition, optical fibers transmit several signals at once, carrying 10 times as much data as their electrical counterparts. “Our goal is to do for neural interfaces what fiber optics did for the telecom industry,” says electrical engineer Marc Christensen, who is leading the SMU group. Transmitting more information faster should give bionic limbs more lifelike movements.
This month, the team will implant optical fibers to stimulate a rat’s rear leg. If it works, Christensen says, in about a decade, robotic arms could be as graceful as Steve Austin’s six-million-dollar one.
[b]How Artificial Nerves Work[/b]
[img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_small/articles/PSC0111HL040.jpg[/img]
Artificial Nerves: Using fiber optics, these nerves control a new generation of bionic limbs. [i]Rajeev Doshi[/i]
[b]Sensing The Limb[/b]
When someone’s prosthetic hand touches a ball, for example, it would trigger an optical fiber in the arm to pulse a pattern of infrared light like Morse code. These light messages stimulate a sensory nerve to fire in a similar pattern, instructing the brain that the hand is feeling a round object.
[b]Moving The Limb[/b]
Thinking about squeezing the ball sends electrical impulses from the brain to a motor nerve. When it reaches the optical fiber implanted in the nerve, the signal deforms thousands of the fiber’s spheres. This changes the pattern of light in the fiber, which instructs the prosthetic hand to grip the ball.[/quote]
[url=http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-02/talk-hand-new-interface-bionic-limbs][source][/url]
The article from when DARPA awarded the money to this project was posted here. I thought you'd appreciate seeing progress in this. Here's hoping that they'll be fully successful with this rat and start replacing limbs soon.
We can rebuild him. We sort of have the technology! :science:
My body is ready!
:science:
Does that mean in the future we will end up being like 80% robot in attempts at improving our abilities.
And this is how human augmentation begins.
Is it just me, or have new medical technologies (like that skin-gun) lately been really fucking awesome?
[img]http://www.kwanzoo.com/social-trivia/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/jcdenton.jpg[/img]
My vision is augmented.
Fucking awesome, now there's only the issue of batteries that would last a good while without being needed to be changed every day.
Nifae don't be so mad about your box full of nanochambers for augmentation
My vision will be augmented.
Although I'm going to want to be very careful about optic fiber in my eyes.
fuck you Nifae you ninja
I want robot arms
Please god put me in a horrible arm-detaching accident in thirty years
I'm all for transhumanism.
I want one !
[QUOTE=Raiskauskone V2;28304101]Fucking awesome, now there's only the issue of batteries that would last a good while without being needed to be changed every day.[/QUOTE]
Isn't your brain the battery in this case regarding prosthetic limbs?
[QUOTE=VaSTinY;28304643]Isn't your brain the battery in this case regarding prosthetic limbs?[/QUOTE]
Sadly not: while the signal to the prosthesis would be powered by the brain, the actuators would need their own power supply to operate, in the same way that muscles are supplied with sugars for fuel by the bloodstream.
Is it just me or does the arm in OP look like an arm Apple would create? This is good news though.
[QUOTE=Askaris;28305146]Sadly not: while the signal to the prosthesis would be powered by the brain, the actuators would need their own power supply to operate, in the same way that muscles are supplied with sugars for fuel by the bloodstream.[/QUOTE]
Not a problem, all we need to do is find a way to use the blood to power the machine! :science:
[QUOTE=AaronM202;28305640]Not a problem, all we need to do is find a way to use the blood to power the machine! :science:[/QUOTE]
Or just take the arm off and put it in the charger while you sleep.
Yay hopefully my mom can get one of these if they are ever made, just hope her insurance will pay for it :frown:
And does this remind anyone of Deus Ex? Oh woop, it already reminded someone of Deus Ex :v:
[QUOTE=Nerts;28305736]Or just take the arm off and put it in the charger while you sleep.[/QUOTE]
Build it out of solar panels :v:
watch people trying to loose their own arms so they can be cyborgs
I am willing to give up a limb to be a test subject.
Just make sure mine has a laser cannon in it.
Or maybe a grappling hook.
[img]http://wsuccess.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/borg_1.jpg[/img]
nearly there
Oh, thank god! No more worrying when around cutlery!
Finally I can see my dream coming true, I'll be sure to get into a limb ripping accident when this is ready.
[QUOTE=theseltsamone;28306550]Oh, thank god! No more worrying when around cutlery![/QUOTE]
Don't go around cutting off your limbs just because you want to be a cyborg.
[QUOTE=Mad Chatter;28306760]Don't go around cutting off your limbs just because you want to be a cyborg.[/QUOTE]
I disagree. Do exactly that.
At some point this technology is going to be so fucking advanced we'll be willingly chopping our arms off to get GLORIOUS DIAMONDOID PROSTHETIC ARMS :drugnerd:
[QUOTE=P1X3L N1NJA;28304002]Does that mean in the future we will end up being like 80% robot in attempts at improving our abilities.[/QUOTE]
Ideally all that will be left will be the (augmented)brain, everything else will be completely replaced.
[QUOTE=Mad Chatter;28306760]Don't go around cutting off your limbs just because you want to be a cyborg.[/QUOTE]
This. Get a doctor to do it, it'll go better.
