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If you've read any of my posts, you may already know that I have great dreams of eventually replacing my frail human form with a superior body of electronics and metal.  So every time I see something in the news that is an advancement toward my ultimate goal, it makes me very happy inside.  Prosthetics have come a long way in a short period of time and, if the latest development pans out, people may be able to get limb replacements that not only act like the real thing, but can also feel the world around them.

A team of folks at the Translational Neural Engineering Lab in Switzerland have come up with a prosthetic limb that receives sensory feedback in real-time.  By using electrodes to connect the artificial limb to the nervous system, they've created a two-way communication system, just like a regular limb would have.  The hand will be controlled via thought commands, which is nothing new, but it will also return information about what it is interacting with, which is the big breakthrough.

The hope is that more sensory input will allow those receiving prosthetic replacements to more easily adapt to them.  Thus, if this development proves successful enough to set the standard, people who lose limbs could have them replaced almost immediately and, because of the better learning curve, be back in action in a short period of time.

The plan is to attach this prototype device onto an old patient in Rome, Italy.  This lucky individual also test-drove an earlier incarnation of the sensory feedback limb, though that version only received very basic sensory feedback.  The new design will be able to “feel” all the way from the fingertips to the wrists; a vast improvement.

If the one-month testing period on the limb proves successful, researchers are hoping to have a fully functional product within the next two years.  Afterwards, they’ll be looking at ways to apply this new technology to all sorts of prosthetics, thus opening up a whole new world for amputees.  And, as long as they move fast enough, it may culminate in the cyborg body that I dream of.

Prosthetic hand photo courtesy of Fae via Wikicommons