Slate Magazine has a report from the DARPATech conference, containing details of the contraptions under development by those mad Pentagon scientists, including the robotic surgeon trauma pod and this prosthetic arm:
At one display area, a pair of armless volunteers and a young veteran missing his right hand demonstrate some fancy new models. We don't yet have bionic arms that hook up directly to the cortex, but one machine uses electrical signals from the muscle tissue remaining in a patient's stump to drive a mechanical hand: After extended training, the veteran could open and close his metal grip by imagining the movements. Another makes use of a foot-operated control mechanism hidden in a normal-looking shoe.
(Via DefenseTech)
More like this
While homelessness among U.S. veterans is on the decline, significant housing challenges remain, according to a new report from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.
This Veterans’ Day, it will be a cold night in most parts of the country, and especially cold for the homeless. On any given night in the US, more than 578,000 children and adults are homeless, including 31 percent who were not in shelters. Homelessness among military veterans is troubling.
Here's a thought for "Veterans" Day: one out of nine people in the US is a veteran but one out of four homeless persons is a veteran. That's something for Americans to be proud of for sure.
Daniel Cooper knows how to properly evaluate what's important. He's George W. Bush's undersecretary for benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
We may not have prosthetics that are wired directly into the cortex quite yet, but I recall a segment on NPR about a chip being implanted into a monkey, that controlled a robotic arm. These advances are really exciting. I'm just waiting for the full body cyber-suit, controlled by the power of the mind.