[HN Gopher] A prosthetic hand restored my sense of touch
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       A prosthetic hand restored my sense of touch
        
       Author : RiderOfGiraffes
       Score  : 73 points
       Date   : 2021-03-19 09:22 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.co.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.co.uk)
        
       | oddlyspesific wrote:
       | He mentions he'd want to feel temperature through this tech, and
       | all I can think of is, what if it gets hacked.
       | 
       | Nonetheless, great accomplishment for humankind.
        
       | slfnflctd wrote:
       | Apparently even simpler sensor arrays can trigger the brain's
       | perception of physically connecting to another human being-- and
       | the whole emotional cascade that goes with it. If the guy isn't
       | an edge case or exaggerating, this could be an indication of a
       | watershed moment for neural interfaces.
        
       | griffinkelly wrote:
       | Whereas in this story, they search for the nerves and insert
       | wires, I worked at the Rehab Institute of Chicago in the Todd
       | Kuiken lab and there was some great research going on this area
       | around targeted muscle reinnervation. Absolutely amazing to see
       | patients out of surgery begin to develop movement in the new
       | muscle groups--I most frequently saw the pectoral:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddInW6sm7JE&t=36s
        
       | tines wrote:
       | Not a direct comment on the article, and I don't want to be a
       | Debbie Downer here, but aren't neural interfaces like Neuralink
       | and other things the absolute perfection of means for societal
       | control? No doubt they are unimaginably useful, but they're also
       | a dictatorship's wet dream. Is it not only a matter of time
       | before they're installed in every baby's brain by government
       | mandate in authoritarian regimes?
        
         | jayd16 wrote:
         | Control how? Like inducing pain remotely?
        
           | ElFitz wrote:
           | That could be a very good way of torturing dissidents without
           | leaving any physical marks. Beyond anything physical harm
           | could accomplish.
           | 
           | Or controlling crowds of protesters by inducing pain.
           | 
           | Taking it up a notch, reading emotional states could help
           | figure out the general mood of the population, as well as
           | specific subsets or individuals, and either figure out how to
           | make potential dissenters happy (a la Brave New World), or
           | get rid of unsatisfied members of society (1984).
           | 
           | Finally, I _think_ (not sure) I remember Musk talking about
           | one day storing and retrieving memories via such devices.
           | This would allow to pretty much rewrite individual and
           | collective history. Most definitely way beyond our current
           | technology's capabilities, but way better than whatever Big
           | Brother could ever dream of.
        
         | _Microft wrote:
         | That, or getting perfect feedback on how people reacted to ads?
        
         | bobthepanda wrote:
         | I feel like this way overstates what we know how to do with
         | neural interfaces.
        
       | Roark66 wrote:
       | This is cool. I hope some day someone invents a reliable way to
       | stimulate neurons without having to use physical wires.
        
         | yetanother-1 wrote:
         | I misread the word wires with wives, and was confused for a
         | second
        
       | lettergram wrote:
       | For those interested in this area I recommend:
       | 
       | https://www.psyonic.io/
       | 
       | It's cheap and I've watched it be developed since the beginning.
       | There are multiple ways to restore a sense of touch, this appears
       | to use the method which stretches in the skin.
       | 
       | There's also a method of restoring the senses that uses
       | electrical current. It was fun to watch all the undergrads in the
       | lab electrocute themselves lol. The reality is skin stretching is
       | consistent; where as how electricity flows through the body
       | varies wildly between people.
       | 
       | The one linked in my comment uses vibration:
       | 
       | https://www.psyonic.io/ability-hand
       | 
       | Which has less of an impact long term (Aka drying out skin from
       | twisting, etc)
        
         | lp251 wrote:
         | straight out of csl!
        
       | BurningFrog wrote:
       | One interesting application is hooking Jason up to other robotic
       | hands reaching into environments where human hands can't work.
       | 
       | Like a hot oven, space vacuum, or maybe micro surgery.
       | 
       | If the hands implement the same signal protocol, he should be
       | able to switch them out.
        
       | jamiek88 wrote:
       | The more we learn about the brain the more amazing it seems to
       | be.
       | 
       | It's an extrapolation machine! From very little data the
       | constructs and sensations we feel, the qualia are just
       | incredible.
        
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       (page generated 2021-03-21 23:01 UTC)