[HN Gopher] Woman's experimental bionic hand passes major test
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Woman's experimental bionic hand passes major test
Author : jordigg
Score : 99 points
Date : 2023-10-12 15:42 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (gizmodo.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (gizmodo.com)
| tycho-newman wrote:
| Does it come with attachments?
| elil17 wrote:
| Not sure why you're downvoted here - in the video they show at
| least one non-hand attachment, a computer terminal which lets
| her control a virtual hand for training purposes. Two wires run
| from her implants to the terminal.
| kwhitefoot wrote:
| People probably thought that they had a particular kind of
| attachment in mind. One that can't be mentioned in polite
| society.
| viraptor wrote:
| What, a dildo? It can be mentioned in a polite society.
| Just not in a prude one. (Now, whether it's a reasonable
| question or just being immature is another thing...)
| malfist wrote:
| Or people thought asking if a prosthetic, which is an
| attachment, came with an attachment to be a pointless
| question
| causi wrote:
| _and provides sensory feedback_
|
| This seems like a major achievement that's just casually tossed
| in there with no ceremony or explanation.
| distortionfield wrote:
| I thought the same thing, feels like they buried the lede there
| a bit. I have a ton of questions, including if this could at
| all benefit from an approach like Toyota's robotics team
| recently demonstrated.
| GravityLab wrote:
| This is amazing. Soon we'll be at the bionic arms featured in
| iRobot.
| chrsw wrote:
| No, not soon.
| autoexec wrote:
| I've seen some amazing prosthetics on the internet, I've been
| seeing them for decades, but none of them get wide use. They're
| either all "experimental" or so insanely expensive that nobody
| can get them. These kinds of articles can make us feel good about
| science and hopeful about our future, but the reality is that the
| people who need these things are basically never going to have
| one or anything close to one.
| Dig1t wrote:
| You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.
|
| Look how much hatred there is for Neuralink. A company actually
| trying to productize and bring to market a device that will
| allow quadriplegic people to move and walk again, which could
| restore life for so many people who need help and have no other
| options.
|
| So if you do try to bring it to market you're pilloried by the
| press and everyone online and if you don't it's sad because it
| seems like there's nobody trying to make the technology
| accessible.
| notaustinpowers wrote:
| I think the main concern with Neuralink isn't so much the
| technology/mission itself, it's Elon. We've seen with his
| other companies how he runs testing. Blow up rocket after
| rocket after rocket until it goes right. And even when it
| does go right, cause catastrophic damage to the launch pad,
| damage they were warned would happen. With earth Tesla
| Autopilots it was very finicky and absolutely should have
| gone through more in-house training rather than releasing it
| to the public, calling it a "beta" and hoping for the best.
|
| We've seen his track record and have a perceived idea of how
| he prefers to advance technology. That's why a lot of people
| are very nervous about him putting a chip into people's
| brains.
| Dig1t wrote:
| If you've ever built anything you know that the only way
| anything gets built is with iteration. There are very few
| examples in history where something new got built and was a
| perfect finished product v1. The way we build new things is
| making something, testing it, measuring the outcome and
| then using the information to build v2.
|
| Look at literally every product ever built, that's how it
| was made. Rockets especially need this treatment, you have
| to blow up a lot of rockets to refine the process in any
| reasonable time frame.
|
| It's not just Elon's methodology that's all new things. How
| many iPhone prototypes do you think they created before
| they shipped the first one?
|
| Neuralink is doing the same thing with lab animals, which
| by the way is an established practice used in all of
| science. The end result will be a cure for people who
| desperately need it and it will be within our lifetime if
| they are allowed to continue without regulatory roadblocks.
| mikem170 wrote:
| > Look how much hatred there is for Neuralink. A company
| actually trying to productize and bring to market a device
| that will allow quadriplegic people to move and walk again
|
| People are wary of Neuralink because of how big tech
| manipulates peoples and pollutes society for profit, not
| because they are opposed to helping quadriplegics.
| Dig1t wrote:
| I agree there are things to be wary of, all new tech is a
| double edged sword. But the pro's obviously outweigh the
| cons in the same way the internet and smart phones have.
|
| You'll find very few people who will say they would prefer
| to live in a world where all humanity's collective
| knowledge is not instantly accessible to everyone. You used
| to have to drive to the library to look things up! Is that
| old world better? Heck no.
|
| It will be the same with neural implants. Overcoming
| neurological illness and giving everyone's brain super
| computer capabilities are worth the risk.
| tspike wrote:
| > in the same way the internet and smart phones have
|
| I think the jury is very much still out on that one. I
| just got on Facebook for the first time in almost 10
| years, and the comments on 'suggested' content have made
| me seriously question whether society was ready for these
| technologies. The corrosive impact of the falsehoods that
| are being thrown around has only begun to take effect.
| xenadu02 wrote:
| Very rarely does any technology start off cheap enough to be
| mass-produced. If you don't build prototypes then expensive
| bespoke initial models you'll often never get to the "half of
| all who need it can afford it" let alone "90%+ can afford it".
|
| If you don't like that then the government will need to step up
| with public funds.
| eichin wrote:
| I thought the DEKA arm was shipping, but apparently
| https://www.unionleader.com/news/scitech/dean-kamens-new-luk...
| it's finally coming to market this quarter - "testing by nearly
| 100 amputees for more than 10,000 hours of use" now that it
| actually has FDA approval; earliest demo that turns up in a
| quick search was _2007_ ... so it 's the kind of success that
| makes your point :}
| altruios wrote:
| in a 'perfect' future: we would cut off our own limbs to get the
| nimble-tron 5000 with magnetic finger extensions and predictive
| AI that totally doesn't strangle anyone even a little.
|
| I joke... but I unironically can't wait for replacement limb tech
| to be that desirable. Imagine the upgrades people would get...
| Aisen8010 wrote:
| The vision and ideas from the game Deus Ex are waiting to
| happen.
| lo_zamoyski wrote:
| This is not an "upgrade". A replacement is a concession, a
| patch, a crutch, a mere instrument. It doesn't matter if the
| crutch can crack open Brazil nuts or turn your TV on or allow
| you to fetch the keys that fell behind the fridge.
| Metaphysically, it is always an inferior, if sophisticated,
| instrument. Ridding yourself of perfectly good limbs to replace
| them with an instrument is not only a "downgrade", but gravely
| and grotesquely immoral.
|
| You can blame the incoherent travesty that is mechanistic
| metaphysics for the strange notion it is otherwise.
| altruios wrote:
| whoa...
|
| hold on there...
|
| I replace my 2080ti with a 4080ti... is that's not an
| upgrade: that's instead categorically always a 'patch' to
| you?
|
| metaphysically - a replacement says nothing to the quality of
| replacement.
|
| Silly to think any change on anything is always for the
| worse...
|
| A replacement can also be an upgrade. those are not mutually
| exclusive labels.
| the_doctah wrote:
| The technological singularity actually occurs when the
| prosthetic hand gives a hand jibber unrecognizable from a real
| one.
| roarcher wrote:
| This is pretty amazing, but I wonder--how does the body adapt to
| having a piece of hardware that extends through the skin? Does
| the body not see this as an open wound? It seems like being
| permanently impaled with a metal pole.
| dexwiz wrote:
| Not a doctor, but semipermanent ports are common. I imagine
| with the right coatings and materials, we know how to manage
| natural rejection.
| Thebroser wrote:
| Would probably assume some level of immunosuppressants might be
| necessary.
| failrate wrote:
| Like an earring? The skin typically forms a fistula-like sheath
| around the metal.
| munificent wrote:
| A fistula from a piercing connects two surface exits to each
| other, like a wormhole through your body. Once complete, the
| piercing touches nothing internal to you, just skin.
|
| But in this case, the prosthetic must penetrate through the
| skin to connect to bone.
| sigmar wrote:
| There are some metals that are well known to be biocompatible,
| as in no immune response. The video in the article has diagram
| of the inner screws into her arm. I'd guess the screws are
| Ti6Al4V, which is frequently used in knee replacements and
| other orthopedic surgeries.
| braymundo wrote:
| Karin Silverhand.
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