Chess World Champion Vladimir Kramnik laughs it up in this video of his match against a merciless robot arm, but on the inside, like the rest of humanity, you can see the growing sense of dread. We are doomed. More »
After an accidental and tragic arm-lopping, Mark Lesek’s early efforts to find a suitable prosthesis didn’t really pan out. Lesek, a mechanical engineer by trade, took matters into his own hand(s). He made one.
Researchers at the University of South Florida have developed a wheelchair robo-arm that can read brain waves and react accordingly. Naturally, this could change the lives of individuals with debilitating syndromes and spinal injuries.
Designer Hans Alexander Huseklepp believes that prostheses, like glasses, can be both functional and fashionable.
One day while riding in his friend’s car, Evan Reynolds’ arm got ripped off, and he became one of the first people to score a fully functioning Luke-Skywalker-style robotic I-Limb from Touch Bionics.
We showed you some of the video from Dean Kamen’s appearance at the All Things D: D6 conference back in May and it included some demos of the amazing Luke Arm prosthetic limb. Now All Things D has made the three-part entire interview available, and it includes detailed explanations from Kamen about why he got into the research and development of the limb, and specifics of the development process from early prototypes up. It’s fascinating, and Kamen makes for compelling watching.
Dean Kamen, inventor is being interviewed at All Things D now. He’s here to talk about his cyborg prosthetic “Luke arm”. (It’s named after Luke, yes, Skywalker.) Amazing.
In a breakthrough for future human prosthetic limbs, two monkeys at the University of Pittsburgh have successfully thought-operated a robot arm and used it to feed themselves for the first time. The macaques have electrodes implanted in their brains, monitoring about 100 cells, the signals from which drive the robot arm. The trained monkeys can now use the arm to grab food, even if it’s moved around, and often reach for more while still chewing on the first treat. They’d better not show them any cyborg smasher movies though: as the saying goes “monkey see… monkey do”, eh? [New Scientist]
newVideoPlayer("tresling_giz.flv", 475, 376,""); Update: We have video of the action! Tetris geeks must rely on brute force as much as mental agility to win in Tresling, a new version of the classic game. Opponents are pitted against each other on an arm wrestling board, and the pieces shift based on whoever is in control. Wanna get that straight piece in position for a four line combo? You better hit the gym, sissy. Of course, you can’t win on beefcakey-ness alone, a good deal of strategy is required to move the pieces where you want them to land. We really enjoy creator Tom Gerhardt’s attempt to turn Tresling into a lifestyle, and not just a game, complete with a Communist-style logo and calls for back-alley matches. Check out the official site to “join the revolution”. [Tresling - Thanks Tom!]
