Smart Prosthetics As Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2016-05-06
·
936 words · ~4 min read
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Chances are you've played a game or read a cyberpunk novel that's featured
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characters with super awesome bionic body parts at some point. Uh Jax from
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Mortal Kombat, Adam Jensen from DSX, or Barrett Wallace from Final Fantasy, just
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to name a few. And the idea of powered
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artificial limbs that work just as well as real ones or even better has long
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been a mainstay in fiction. But could we be getting close to making this a
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reality for people who have been unlucky enough to lose an ARM or a leg? If so,
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it'll have been a long time coming. False limbs and digits made from
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materials such as wood, iron, and leather have been in use for millennia.
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Everywhere from ancient Egypt to the Roman Republic to the high seas of the
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16th century, where peg legs were famously used by pirates. But even
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though prosthetics have been around a long time, for the vast majority of
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their history, they didn't provide much functionality other than aesthetics
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except for artificial legs that would at least allow a person to stand. And while
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various people over the centuries have created designs to make prosthetics more
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functional, such as rudimentary joints at the knees, the biggest advancements
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have been made in the past few decades. Modern manufacturing processes have
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allowed the production of artificial limbs that often look like the real deal
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and also seriously improve the quality of life for the people who use them. And
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computer AED design has enabled precise measurement and modeling of prosthetic
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body parts customized for each patient as well as the manufacturer of
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highquality joints and moving parts modeled closely after their natural
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counterparts. Additionally, materials like silicone and polyvinyl carbonate
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have been used for artificial skin and hair so that prosthetics don't have to
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look like and or feel like cold hunks of
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metal or plastic. But how do patients
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actually control these things? Many prosthetics work with mechanical systems
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powered by the user's own body. For example, artificial hands that can open
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and shut thanks to a cable system that can be operated with simple gestures
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such as moving a shoulder. Other prosthetics use myio electrics, the
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electrical impulses that contract your muscles. So you'll have electrodes that
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are attached to the same place as the prosthetic that can pick up these
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impulses and send them to the artificial limb, which then moves according to what
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the patient wants it to do. But the real excitement in the field surrounds
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prosthetics that are controlled completely by thought, the same way
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you'd control an original body part. In
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recent years, scientists have developed sensors that can be directly implanted
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beneath the skin and that interface with the nerves so that when the brain sends
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an impulse to your ARM that says, "Hey, pick up that can of soda." The sensor
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can send that impulse to a processor which will direct the limb to follow
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your brain's orders. Cool, right? We're even seeing this technology take a step
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further with sensors embedded in prosthetic hands to send signals to the
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brain and restore a patients sense of touch. Just like Luke Skywalker in The
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Empire Strikes Back. And this new generation of smart prosthetics doesn't
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stop at artificial limbs. People who suffer from impaired vision may have
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more options in the future as eye implants that project images directly
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onto the retina could help patients that have suffered physical trauma. And
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implants that make contact with the brain, hooked up to a small camera,
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could bypass the eye entirely and provide your brain's vision center with
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images from the outside world. Just don't expect anything that will let you
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see through walls anytime soon. Unless, of course, you're the NSA. Speaking of
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FreshBooks is extremely simple, even if you're not a numbers person, actually,
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especially if you're not a numbers person. And you can try FreshBooks free
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for 30 days by going to freshbooks.com/techquicky and entering
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techquicky in the how did you hear about us section. So, thanks for watching,
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guys. If you liked this video, hit the like button. If you disliked it, well,
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