14 DAY TRIAL // There was a time when people used peg legs and hooks instead of hands, in piracy anyway, but those times are long gone. That doesn't mean true-to-life bionic implants and prosthetics exist though, although given a certain recent invention we might be getting really close.
A team of researchers from the Case Western University have invented a bionic hand that can simulate a human's sense of touch.
It sounds far-fetched, but then you have to consider that it was only a matter of time before this was achieved.
After all, technology has always moved forward, especially over the past two decades. And now that semiconductors are made on processes smaller than 20 nm, we're on the cusp of bionic inventions that were only found in fiction not long ago.
The researchers made it possible to take measurements from 20 sensor points and control the grip force of the hand's digits.
The sensor data is linked directly to the sensory nerves in the patient's forearms, basically creating an interface between the organic man and the synthetic hand.
An instrument known as cuff electrode was essential here, having been under development for decades as stimulator of optic nerves.
It wasn't too much trouble to adapt them for something like this. The only thing that was hard to do was to get them to stimulate axons for an extended period of time.
So the new cuff electrodes can now target individual groups of axons (the long, sensitive neuron links) without penetrating the protective sheaths enclosing them.
By using multiple cuffs on the same nerves, it becomes possible to target different axons thanks to the cross-section in nerves that allow individual channels to exchange members continuously along their length.
But the common man needn't concern themselves with all the technical babble. The main point is that it's possible to make real bionic limbs that can let you touch as if you had actual skin.
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