Running in Slow Motion

[Aldous]

I've been meaning to post this for about a month.

I'll type out an article I cut from my newspaper, The Times (of London), dated Saturday, 25 June, 2005.

An electrical worker whose arms were incinerated by 7,400 volts can shave again thanks to "bionic" replacements that herald a revolution in harnessing brainpower.

Jesse Sullivan is not yet stronger or faster, unlike Colonel Steve Austin, the hero of The Six Million Dollar Man television series in the 1970s.

The computer and other parts that allow Mr Sullivan to sense hot and cold in the fingers of his prosthetic arms cost a mere $100,000 (66,335 pounds), but Mr Sullivan hopes to be able to tie his shoelaces and go fishing soon.

The doctors who have rebuilt him are touting his abilities as a huge advance in neural engineering, which could help accident victims and stroke patients to recover movement in paralysed limbs.

Mr Sullivan, 58, lost his arms at the shoulders when he accidentally grabbed a live cable in 2001 while working for a power company in Tennessee.

Todd Kuiken, the director of amputee programmes at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, took the four main nerves that had connected to Mr Sullivan's arms and transplanted them into a chest muscle.

[continued...]

[Aldous]

Sensors placed over the nerve endings amplify the electrical signals they receive from the brain. The signals are routed into a computer that controls the motorised arms.

Success lies in tricking the brain into thinking that it is dealing with an arm. Mr Sullivan does not register that the sensations are being felt in his chest. His brain interprets the feelings as coming from his prosthetic hands.

Mr Sullivan said: "The first time I put this on, it was a feeling that's hard to explain. It lifts you up and gives you hope."

Mr Sullivan can put on his own socks, weed the garden and open small jars. His arms felt so natural that without thinking he yanked one of them off while trying to pull-start a lawnmower.

Scientific progress regarding lost limbs was threatening to to run into the sand a decade ago, but the device that Mr Sullivan wears, which includes six motors and wrists that can rotate fully, allows him to move his elbow, shoulder and hand all at once.

The article is headed, "How bionic man's false hands can feel hot and cold." [From Roland Watson in Washington.]

[Aldous]

I also have a cutting here from METRO (the free daily newspaper of the London Underground) dated 20 July, 2005.

An article about HAL-5 also ran in The Times.

The photographs show a diminutive and very skinny man wearing a sleek white exo-skeleton.

It won't make you invisible, superstretchy or turn you into a fireball...

Yes, the FF are all over the place here at the moment...

...but it will make you feel superhuman.

This robot suit can make you twice as powerful and perform remarkable feats of strength.

When Hybrid Assistive Limb 5 is strapped on, its sensors detect nerve signals sent from the brain when the wearer tries to move and starts up its motors.

Users can lift more than double the weight they can without it.

People who could barely manage an 80kg leg press pushed 180kg with it on.

It has been developed in Japan by Yoshiyuki Sankai, of Tsukuba University. "The big goal is to expand or strengthen the physical capability of humans," said Sankai, who plans to start leasing HAL-5 in Japan this year.

One of the pictures shows the skinny little man carrying bags of rice weighing 30kg.

Of course, one person who comes to mind is Tony Stark.

Bionics limbs, super-strong exo-skeletons.... None of this imaginative stuff from our childhoods is far-fetched -- it's merely a matter of time and technological development.

[NotSuper]

Bionics limbs, super-strong exo-skeletons.... None of this imaginative stuff from our childhoods is far-fetched -- it's merely a matter of time and technological development.

Agreed. Just look at all the stuff Japan is involved in right now (invisibility, robotic suits, androids, ect).

[Brainiac44]

...must put my hands on this new weapon and destroy Superman...

Brainy.