Bionic Prosthetics: A Feat Of Technology

Thanks to advancements in prosthetics, bionic mankind is becoming a reality.
Advances in medical science continue to boggle our minds, and now engineers at John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab have created prosthetic limbs that can be controlled by the human mind. The age of bionic humanity is upon us.
Engineers at the university created a prosthetic arm with 26 joints which can lift up to 45lb. The remarkable part is that the arm, which is called a Modular Prosthetic Limb, can be controlled by Colorado native Les Baugh’s mind. An electrical accident cost Baugh both arms 40 years ago, so Dr Albert Chi remapped remaining nerves from his missing arms to allow the arms to control the prosthetics.
Baugh had a custom socket for his shoulders that holds the prosthetic limbs and makes the neurological connections with the reinnervated nerves. Advanced Arm Dynamics designed Baugh’s prosthetic socket, and now the challenge ongoing is to lower the price point. Currently the arm costs $500,000 and that is simply too high for the mass market.
Is there an alternative?
Another company has developed similar technology with a thought-controlled prosthetic leg. Össur has combined implanted sensors sending wireless signals to a computer that is contained within the artificial limb. This allows for subconscious, real-time control as well as a whole range of movements that are more like their fleshy counterparts than a traditional prosthesis.
Muscle-controlled prosthetics have been in use since the late 1960s, but this technology simply is not as advanced as a mind-controlled option. Electrical sensors controlled by muscles pick up impulse inputs from more than one muscle, so they are not as precise as those that are plumbed into nerves.
The new technology is compatible with prosthetic feet, knees and legs. These smart limbs can essentially learn the terrain as well as adapt their operation to different walking speeds.
The prosthetics use Implanted MyoElectric Sensors (IMES) produced by the Alfred Mann Foundation. The matchstick-sized system is implanted into muscles which operated the absent limb. This then connects with a coiled-wire receiver inside the prosthesis’ cup; essentially the cup transmits wireless signals to the computer contained within the limb. Both parts combine to create a cybernetic spinal cord, with subconscious commands controlling the movement of the prosthesis.
US Defence agency Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has also created a prosthetic arm in collaboration with biotechnology firm DEKA. This became the first nerve-controlled prosthetic to receive approval from the US Food and Drug Administration.
This arm earned the nickname ‘Luke’, after Luke Skywalker, and helped an amputee climb a rock climbing wall at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Originally designed to give wounded veterans a new lease of life, this arm is controlled by electronic signals from the muscles that control the prosthetic as if it were plumbed directly into the nerves.
In Britain, meanwhile, 29-year-old congenital amputee Nicky Ashwell has been fitted with a bionic hand that is modelled on an anatomically correct skeletal structure. Weighing just 390g, the hand can support weights up to 100lb, and can carry out tasks that include riding a bicycle, among 14 other precision grips.
With 337 mechanical parts it uses sensors triggered by muscle movements that connect to motors in each finger and microprocessors. Military research and F1 technology, including lightweight aerospace materials and rare Earth magnets, all go into this advanced bionic hand that costs $15,000.
The field of prosthetics is advancing at a frightening rate and the future should bring reduced costs, increased functionality and limbs that serve amputees as well as their original limb or limbs. In fact they could be even better than flesh and bone in the end, which is an intriguing proposition as the age of the bionic man or woman is really here.