September 18, 2006

Funny, she doesn't look like Lindsay Wagner

Posted by pete at September 18, 2006 11:18 PM

But she's still a bionic woman:

A former US Marine has become the first woman in the world to be fitted with a "bionic" arm that she can control by her thoughts alone.

Claudia Mitchell lost her left arm at the shoulder in a motorbike accident.

Her new arm works by detecting movements of a chest muscle that has been connected to the remains of nerves that once went to her real arm.

The first prototype was fitted to double amputee Jesse Sullivan four years ago. However, the latest version has been significantly improved.

Using it Ms Mitchell, 26, can now fold clothes, eat a banana and do the washing up.

"Washing up?" Kind of gives a new spin to "Your clothes, give them to me."

So what if it's not quite teaming up with aliens to defeat Bigfoot after he critically injured Steve Austin ("The Return of Bigfoot" from Season 2, duh). Baby steps, people.

The ends of the nerves that once controlled the arm were removed from her shoulder and connected to nerves in the chest muscle, some of which conveyed sensation from the skin above.

Over several months the transplanted nerves grew into the muscle tissue.

Once this happened electrodes fixed to a harness worn on the shoulder were able to detect impulses emitted from the nerves into the muscle and forward them to the arm.

These impulses are processed by a computer, which is able to direct the arm to make very precise movements.

All in all, this is very cool. And I don't even begrudge her the return of my vintage Terminator nightmares.

I just wanna see her eat that banana.

--Posted by raybob on September 19, 2006 8:28 AM

Ya know, there's only one real way to test the delicacy of that hand, and all I'm saying is I wouldn't care to be the guinea pig.

--Posted by basshole on September 19, 2006 7:19 PM

...all I’m saying is I wouldn’t care to be the guinea pig. -- basshole

What is your problem, good sir? No self-respecting he-man (especially one of the 'Net-savvy persuasion) would have a problem crowing, "Yo, I porked a cyborg."

As I was telling Our Host this evening, these advances in hu-mechanical interfaces can only be a boon to the burgeoning love-bot industry. Who, in this day and age, doesn't yearn for their very own "Galaxina?"

--Posted by The Thing That Walks Like A Man on September 20, 2006 1:40 AM

Oh yeah. I'm all for a techno-roll in the hay. I'm just saying, let's not TEST the process on my abused yet still delicate member.

--Posted by basshole on September 20, 2006 5:52 AM

Gross. Don't care about delicate members over here.

Porking a cyborg on the other hand......

--Posted by flyno20 on September 20, 2006 4:59 PM