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Scientists Create Sensor As Sensitive As Real Skin

Scientists Create Sensor As Sensitive As Real Skin | Longevity science | Scoop.it

While prosthetic limbs continue to improve, tactile feedback is one feature that many are keen to incorporate into the prosthetics but it remains a very difficult technology to develop. But now scientists have developed a new device so packed with sensors it is about as sensitive as human skin. Just as Moore’s Law continues to benefit the integrated circuit, packing ever more sensors into a smaller area will allow such devices to one day be built into everything we touch.

Some areas of our skin, like the lips and fingertips, are more sensitive to the touch because of a greater density of receptors that translate mechanical force into neuronal signals. The sensory device built by scientists at Georgia Tech is a new kind of transistor that converts mechanical force into electricity. The force bends nanoscale wires made of zinc oxide. When the wires bend back, zinc and oxide ions create an electrical potential that is converted to electrical current of a few millivolts. Converting mechanical energy to electrical energy is known as the piezoelectric effect.

 

 

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A novel thought-controlled prosthesis for amputees | KurzweilAI

A novel thought-controlled prosthesis for amputees | KurzweilAI | Longevity science | Scoop.it

An implantable robotic arm controlled by thoughts is being developed by Chalmers University of Technology industrial doctoral student Max Ortiz Catalan in Sweden.

 

Ever since the 1960s, amputees have been able to use prostheses controlled by electrical impulses in the muscles, their functionality is limited because they are difficult to control, according to Catalan.

Alexis GC's curator insight, February 13, 2013 8:50 PM

Definitivamente un post digno de RESCOOP
La idea es excelente, poco invasiva y con una muy alta probabilidad de éxito, además de ser totalmente revolucionaria pues hasta ahora no se han podido tomar los impusos electricos directamente de los nervios correspondientes para lograr el movimiento voluntario de una prótesis, con esta idea se aumentará la estabilidad de las señales captadas por los electrodos y podrán realizarse movimientos mucho más finos.

Excelente contenido, bien distribuído y perfectamente referenciado.

Puntaje 9.5 

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Wounded Eagle Gets New 3D Printed Beak

Wounded Eagle Gets New 3D Printed Beak | Longevity science | Scoop.it

After being shot in the face by a poacher seven years ago, Beauty the bald eagle lost most of her beak. Without it, the eagle couldn’t feed herself, and likely would have died in the wild. But now, Beauty’s getting a second chance at survival in the form of a 3D printed beak. A team of researchers, engineers and dentists created the world’s first prosthetic beak, which was modeled with CAD software and 3D-printed from nylon polymers. After a two-hour-long procedure, Beauty can now eat and drink by herself, though she’s not ready to be released back into the wild. The eagle remains at Birds of Prey Northwest, the conservation facility that spearheaded the recovery project.


Via Gust MEES, Dr. Stefan Gruenwald
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Can you build a human body?

Can you build a human body? | Longevity science | Scoop.it

Check out the BBC's interactive guide to some of the latest developments in bionic body parts...

 

The Bionic Bodies series on the BBC News website will be looking at how bionics can transform people's lives. We will meet a woman deciding whether to have her hand cut off for a bionic replacement and analyse the potential to take the technology even further, enhancing the body to superhuman levels. The series continues on Wednesday with a look at some of the earliest prosthetics from ancient Egypt.

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Electrodes for prosthetic arm permanently implanted into patient for first time

Electrodes for prosthetic arm permanently implanted into patient for first time | Longevity science | Scoop.it

It took some time, but the age of the cyborg is upon us. For the first time, neuromuscular electrodes that enable a prosthetic arm and hand to be controlled by thought have been permanently implanted into the nerves and muscles of an amputee. The operation was carried out recently by a surgical team led by Dr Rickard Brånemark at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden.

 

 

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Long-distance collaborators create inexpensive prosthetic finger

Long-distance collaborators create inexpensive prosthetic finger | Longevity science | Scoop.it

Richard Van As and Ivan Owen have created a prototype prosthetic finger which could prove to be an inexpensive alternative to existing solutions.

 

Rather than patent their work, Richard and Ivan have decided to give the design away for free in order to help other people benefit from their research, and the eventual goal is to offer the prosthetic finger at no cost if funding can pay for all the relevant materials. The pair have also posited the idea of offering it to others as an inexpensive self-assembly kit.

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The artificial finger | KurzweilAI

The artificial finger | KurzweilAI | Longevity science | Scoop.it

European researchers have developed the first sensitive artificial finger.

 

The NanoBioTact and NanoBioTouch projects seek to radically improve understanding of the human mechano-transduction system and tissue engineered nanobiosensors

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