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Remember that bald eagle that had its beak shot off by a poacher? Well, it finally got its prosthetic beak, and it's back in action.
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]
In much the same way that science came to the rescue for a tail-less dolphin, a very dedicated group of volunteers is working hard to develop a robo-beak for one unfortunate eagle. "Beauty" was the victim of a hunter's bullet a number of years ago, leaving her unable to clutch or tear at food. Over the course of the last two years, a crack team composed of mechanical engineers, dentists, and veterinarians has been assembled to design and attach a lightweight nylon-composite beak formed using molds made from computer models.
Winter was just two months old when she got her tail caught in a crab trap—and rendered a useless stump—off the coast of Florida. After a long recuperation and a year and a half of hard labour by one of the veterinary world's top prosthetics wizards, Winter became the first dolphin to receive a functional but fake tail, qualifying her, according to the Daily Mail, as the "world's first bionic sea creature." Here's the story:
*Warped voice through Tannoy system* Chut chut. Pay Luke Skywalker bolla Tatooine frumf ti pund, konchee er pinkosponto kapa. Luke Skywalker bolla Tatooine frumf ti pund, pay." Translated from Huttese into Galactic Basic, that reads: "Greetings. Could Luke Skywalker make his way to the Tatooine Lost & Found, where his prosthetic hand has been handed in. Luke Skywalker to Tatooine's Lost & Found, please."
A knee brace that generates enough electricity to power 10 cellphones was demonstrated by scientists recently. The brace harvests the energy of a person's knee braking after taking a step, similar to the way hybrid car brakes collect energy to charge their batteries. The device only weighs 1.6kg, and does not need the intense effort that other human-powered energy generators such as hand cranks require. And while the mobile phone measurement given by the creators is pretty useless, they do have several practical applications in mind.
The only time we use Bluetooth is to yap about in our cars while we're driving or for transferring photos to and from our computer, but Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Bleill is using it to help him walk again. The Iraq veteran has dual prosthesis with Bluetooth transmitters on board that sends signals between each motor, which updates each piece of the legs on what the others are doing, how it's moving, and whether or not they need to make adjustments.
Japanese researchers have developed a new approach to robotics that could revolutionise the future of artificial limbs. The team, from Okinawa University, has come up with an amazing "muscle" design that is driven by compressed air and is simpler than the designs of many other prosthetic arms currently in development. More info, plus a video of the "muscles" in action after the jump.
Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a way to make people with prosthetic limbs feel by transplanting nerves from the amputated hand into the patient's chest. Though the feeling would be in the chest rather than their arms, the scientists are hopeful that this could lead to prosthetics with sensors under the fingertips which would make people feel like they had a real hand. The only feedback that patients with the traditional prosthetics currently available get is visual, which leads to many broken glasses they can't determine the force of their grip. Keep your fingers crossed that these bionic arms take off so that people with prosthetics will never have to fear about dropping their beer ever again. [Technology Review]
Although this robotic arm probably won't make anybody cry, it is pretty darn amazing. The components, which look anime-like in its cords and pipes and metal structure, are designed to mimic your muscle and skeletal structure. It's good enough right now to actually write semi-legibly and lift a small weight up without passing out—two tasks I have a lot of trouble with. [Festo via Core77 via Boing Boing]
