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Funky Robotic Hand 195

Posted by timothy from the is-there-a-linux-driver dept.
seldo writes "The BBC is carrying a story about a funky-looking robotic hand with the full range of 24 hand movements (NASA's best effort so far has 12, apparently). It's supposed to be for the disabled, although a spokesman for the British Council of Disabled People points out that everyday tasks are not really what the disabled need help with anymore. I just want one to play with :-)" Update: 08/08 17:58 GMT by T : You may be reminded of the DIY robot head from several months ago -- a perfect match?
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Funky Robotic Hand More

Funky Robotic Hand

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  • ALL RIGHT! (Score:5, Funny)

    by jormurgandr ( 128408 ) on Thursday August 08, 2002 @01:51PM (#4034175)
    Finally, I can use both hands to browse the net! We'll just have to see how life-like skin they can create...

    • AND (Score:2, Funny)

      by JazerWonkie ( 598827 )
      Quadriplegics will finnally be able to give everyone else the finger!!!
      • (* Quadriplegics will finnally be able to give everyone else the finger!!! *)

        I am starting to get repetative motion pain from my abundant "commuting guestures". If I can automate the process with a hand like this, then my fingers can rest.

        (Kirk should have just such a button on his chair, BTW. I want to see an uncensored version of Trek where Kirk tells Khan how he *really* feels. "Scotty, direct all power to the Main Finger!")
        • Kirk: Scotty raise the finger higher. Scotty: I'm given 'er all she's got capt'n any more and the knuckles will explode!! (Shameless Star Trek parody)
          • Kirk: Scotty raise the finger higher. Scotty: I'm given 'er all she's got capt'n any more and the knuckles will explode!! (Shameless Star Trek parody)

            "Scotty, forget the Impulse Finger! It is not working. Redirect all power to the Photon Phaser Phinger instead!"

            "But Sir, that would drain too much power from the Ionic Woopy Cushion."

            "Scotty, I gave you an order!"

            "Ay ay, Sir! Photon Phaser Phinger it is."
        • Here ya go. [spencergifts.com] And this one's much cheaper.
    • Yeah, just make sure you calibrate it right before you sit down on the couch in your underwear with a beer to watch football. Scratching at the wrong cal might be a bit uncomfortable.
    • "...everyday tasks are not really what the disabled need help with anymore. I just want one to play with :-)"

      ...I don't think that was the intended meaning.

    • "another hand and an extra set of balls."

      John Candy,.
      Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
    • Just make sure you don't have a kernel panic while using the funky robotic hand or it might turn you into a cranky soprano girl.
  • The google cache can be found [216.239.39.100]
    here.
  • That's incredible! The intense Star Wars freaks are gonna have a field day. I'd imagine that there will be a few people who cut off their hand in hopes of having a Robot hand. Become one with the force, young Jedi.
    • The intense Star Wars freaks are gonna have a field day. I'd imagine that there will be a few people who cut off their hand in hopes of having [an Anikan] hand.

      Is the evil sold seperately?
  • It looks fine for make coffee, and I think it's still kinda crude for the 3-finger solution, eh?

  • You know, talking to a mobile phone while driving without hands-free is going to be banned in Finland too soon. Maybe I could actually buy two of these, the other could hold the phone, and the other could show the middle finger to the legislators while safely keeping both hands on the wheel.

  • Funky looking (Score:3, Funny)

    by sfraggle ( 212671 ) on Thursday August 08, 2002 @01:55PM (#4034213) Homepage
    ... but can it breakdance?

    • Yeah! Gives a new meaning to those 'robot moves'...

      Maybe when they can replace my legs as well I can become the king of the dancefloor!

    • Just wait! They're currently planning the Solid Gold version, and there's a sexy Titanium model on the way!

      Size: As close as possible to Average Human.
      No, I want it BIIIIIIIIG. (insert Xbox controller joke here)
  • Porn is faster now, as one hand for the mouse, one for the keyboard to toggle pages, and the third for....ummm....ummm.... Holding a pop?

    Not that I would uh need that...uhh... ok, bu-bye..
  • The hand-challenged can wack off with full articulation!

  • Pneumatic Muscles (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Keighvin ( 166133 ) on Thursday August 08, 2002 @01:56PM (#4034226)
    Interesting method of actuation: IIRC, these work in the reverse of organic muscles, in that they are capable only of pushing rather than only pulling. This introduces its own set of limitations but does act quickly to close the gap on basic cabilites engineering.

    Still not useful to those who've lost only a hand as the actuation gizmos do take up quite a bit of space, but certainly an impressive achievement.

    • Re:Pneumatic Muscles (Score:2, Informative)

      by Weffs11 ( 323188 )
      Pneumatic cylinders can only push(unless you draw a vacuum). However, it appears that it is not a cylinder, but some rubber hose. Rather interesting I say.

      From the website:

      The Air Muscle consists of a rubber tube covered in tough plastic netting which shortens in length like a human muscle when inflated with compressed air at low pressure.

      The Core of an Air Muscle is a rubber tube.... ....wrapped in a tough plastic weave.... ....which shortens in a scissor action when pulled out, just like a Chinese finger puzzle. As the rubber tube fills with air it is forced to expand
    • I was in error: these are tubes which expand *outward* when the air is compressed (to respond to the increased volume), thereby shortening the length of the overall 'air-muscle' and providing contraction.

      From the site (airmuscles.shtml @ [shadow.org.uk])
      :
      The Air Muscle consists of a rubber tube covered in tough plastic netting which shortens in length like a human muscle when inflated with compressed air at low pressure.

      This method could probably be expanded on using more complex configurations (hydrolic cross-latticed tubing) to yield greater strength, as well.

    • These are different. (Score:3, Informative)

      by FreeLinux ( 555387 )
      The type of pneumatic muscle that you refer to use a pneumatic piston. These work differently. These muscles use a pneumatic bladder that, when inflated, cause the muscle to contract. This is the same behavior, or the same effect, as real muscles.

      My thought is that the cycling of these pneumatic muscles will probably be somewhat noisy. There would be a hissing and poping sound from them as the inflate/deflate and the control valves are operated. I suspect that by using hydraulic muscles instead would be far quieter and would probably offer the device greater strength. The immediately obvious drawback to this is that the hydraulic method would likely have slower response times than the pneumatic version.
    • Masamune Shirow, the Japanese artist, uses Air Muscles in some of his mecha designs in works like Appleseed. I could never figure out what they were supposed to be, I just thought they were some kind of unobtanium "artificial muscle."

      I'd post links if I could, but I'm at work.

      Jon Acheson
    • Actually, the basic technology here is not at all new. These are what is know as "McKibben Muscles" [washington.edu], first developed for artificial arms in the 1950s. (The link is to a good overview of them from my robotics bookmarks list.)

      They are cheap, strong, compact, and easy to build, but they require a lot of energy in the form of not-too-easily available compressed air or other gas. For this reason, they're not used too frequently for prosthetics since carrying enough gas becomes a problem.

      These have been used to build a number of camplex life-mimicking robots, including many of the better legged walking robots. Check out the this page [washington.edu] for an idea of how you can use them in place of real muscles to achieve very lifelike results.

      If you've got a good source of compressed gas, these are an excellent design choice, and probably the only thing we have that can fairly approximate natural muscle at a reasonable cost. ("Muscle wires" like Nitinol require gobs of power and need way too much cooling time to contract to be useful in most applications.)
      • Oh, I forgot to mention - there are decent instructions [washington.edu] on the site above telling you how to build your own - they're quite easy, if you want to experiment, although some commercial ones aren't all that expensive, either, but then you'd miss the fun of building your own...
  • If the fingers/hand have sufficent PSI force, the military could make a hell of a augmented suit for special forces - I can see it now, a marine running through afghan wearing a backpack that has 6 of these arms on it, all with weapons... Sounds like another sequel to Robocop
  • Skynet and T-800's abound...

    but seriously, this could be a very good for a lot of people. Just as long as Cyberdyne doesn't get they're hands on it.
  • Stock x86 PC running Debian GNU/Linux with RTAI real-time system.


    If someone hacks into this thing, can they make you type what they want? Or make you tickle girls where they don't want to be tickled?

    "I swear Sharon! It wasn't me! It was my hand! Someone hacked into my hand!"

    [exeunt]
  • How about use as a waldo, either in manufacturing or in hostile environments such as space? The 'air muscle' part might need modification for vacuum, but I bet it isn't insurmountable.

  • It runs Debian! (Score:3, Redundant)

    by peter ( 3389 ) on Thursday August 08, 2002 @01:58PM (#4034246) Homepage
    from the web page:

    Controller:

    * Stock x86 PC running Debian GNU/Linux with RTAI real-time system.
    * Shadow's own GPL'd robot code will be shipped, permitting initial setup and evaluations. PC will have CAN interface provided.

    Hmm, I wonder how well Beowulf works with RTAI :)

  • Possessed (Score:1)

    by PD ( 9577 )
    This hand is possessed by Debian Linux. Take THAT, Evil Dead!
  • "Groovy."
  • From the company site [shadow.org.uk]


    * Stock x86 PC running Debian GNU/Linux with RTAI real-time system.
    * Shadow's own GPL'd robot code will be shipped, permitting initial setup and evaluations. PC will have CAN interface provided.

  • ...I just need a couple of fingers, ever since the unfortunate "accident." Anyone wanna guess why my name is Toasty16? Winner gets a jpeg of my hand, pending licensing talks with Forgent Networks...
  • Here's the Google cache [216.239.35.100].

  • Alt+Ctrl+Del (Score:1, Troll)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 )
    Now the disabled can reboot Windows by themselves instead of waiting for a BSOD.
  • I wonder if they chose this configuration because it was the best (has evolution gotten it exactly right already?) or because it's familiar.
  • First... this is from the article, and silly: "It's unfortunate that disabled people are constantly used as a reason for inventing new gadgets "

    Wasn't there a quote like... Necessity is the mother of all inventions? Well disabled people are just that, disabled. They have something that limits them from doing eveything they want, so why not build stuff to allow them to do what they want. And this is unfortunate?

    And is it just me, or does this arm thing seem to opperate autonomously? It doesn't seem like its going to be a prothetic that you control, but more like some helper thing that responds to what you want it to do. Well, i suppose that is the better way since controlling the hand would be rather difficult without some kind of direct link into your existing muscles, or nervous system, and even then, it may take quite some time to master. But i'd assume most people would want to control it themselves, rather than have it do what the programming tells it to do.
  • All it needs now is a built in vasoline dispensor and every pr0n freak will want one!

    BTW, how's this thing's wrist movement?
  • I know it says it's controlled by Debian and their GPLed robot code (requisite geekly 'whee!'), but how do you actually Use the thing? Do you have to be plugged into a computer and whacking away at a keyboard with your real hand to make the artificial hand move? Do you have to pre-program movements for it? I looked for it on the page, but darned if I could find it.

  • At last... (Score:4, Funny)

    by CommieLib ( 468883 ) on Thursday August 08, 2002 @02:05PM (#4034315) Homepage
    I can build my haptic feedback arm-wrestling simulator.

  • Lives of the Monster Dogs?

    We're gettin' there baby, we're getting there.

  • The BCDP is pretty much spot on for 'everyday tasks'. With current technology, and if laws are obeyed with respect to disability access, even the most severely handicapped persons can bathe, eat, work, and sleep with relative ease.

    What many people fail to realize is that many disabled persons can't enjoy some of the finer aspects of life. Namely, getting it on with a member of the opposite sex.

    I think that many researchers would be surprised at how pleased the benificiaries of their research would be if they would concentrate more on doing things like developing unobstrusive and comfortable devices that would allow those who are paralized, or of abnormal shape to enjoy sex like an able-bodied person. Also of need is research on sensory stimulation for those who have lost feeling in that part of their body.

    Many female paraplegics, even if they haven't lost feeling in their lower half, have lost the ability to self-lubricate. For many of thse women, KY or Astroglide is not sufficient or not even an option. Research into non surgical ways to help women lubricate would not only benifit these women, but thousands of others who cannot self-lubricate for other reasons.
  • Link [216.239.51.100]
  • The Shadow people have been building nice actuators for years now, but then have trouble controlling them. They have an elaborate biped, but it can barely stand up and can't walk. (They're trying to use a fuzzy-logic controller, which the controls community has mostly discarded.) The hand apparently has positional feedback, but not force feedback or touch (although, using their air muscles, you can play with the compliance a bit.) So you can't actually do much with their hand.
    • All the hoopla about sophisticated robot manipulators does not hide the fact they have no idea how they are goping to control these things in real time. Motor control is a very complex process. It will require more than just powerful computers. Manual dexterity is not something one can hand-program into a computer. It will take a general learning system to learn sensori-motor control in a real-world environment. Spiking neural networks [gte.net] have the best chance of solving this problem. Although I applaud their engineering approach, it will be some time before Shadow's hand becomes useful to handicapped.

  • I could imagine a couple of progressive rock musicians (mainly drummers, for some reason, go figure) who'd probably want one.

  • ...playing a piano near the beginning of the movie "Short Circuit [imdb.com]"?

    Cool product, but of course it won't be of much use to the disabled until they figure out how to directly replace the missing hand/arm with this one. The article says "it will have a hand and arm on a moving base, with remote control and camera systems, so the user can guide the robot through simple tasks" -- but speaking only for my (fully limbed) self, that's not what I'd want. I'd want something that can be used like my old arm, not floating around on rollers like some cybernetic Thing [artifexstudios.com].
  • I'll take the head over the hand anyday...
  • The lazy man's guide to building a computerized android hand:

    Step one - Find an android.
    Step two - Decapitate said android.
  • KERNEL PANIC... can't... move... hand...
  • Don chop off your fingers with pruning shears? Nothing could be more frustrating than trying to say "Me lo sono lavorato di sopra e di sotto!" [about.com] with those crappy NASA hands! And Ehi tu, vieni qui! (Ascolta!) [about.com]? Fagedabowdit!

    Well relax, your problems are solved. We'll have you talking like a native (again) before you can do ASL for "technology to the rescue!"

    (With apologies to the entire population of Italy and those of Italian extraction, and, well, everyone everywhere. I'm just a dumb Mick, don't whack me!)

  • Interesting to note that the article's angle is on an augmentation for disabled people, while their website doesn't have this as a prime focus. I guess they are well aware this angle is their best bet for funding.


    Blue sky projects are just tough to fund, I suppose (though I would be interested to know how they've funded their research over the last 10 years on air muscles).



    I guess the military are much more predominant in the USA, hence everybody's immediate reaction "they should ask the military for money, these things would help us kill more people and the army would fund that" ...sigh... I remember my great disillusionment when I was told that MIT was funded to the hilt by the military...


    Damn shame we can't find ways of funding more interesting experimental research, that we need short term benefits. These guys are excited by getting 75,000 pounds, for goodness sake, that's probably the cost of a day's drinking water on the Shuttle.

    • Oh, so this is the Slashdot article where we generalize about everyone in a particular country- thanks for letting me in on it.

      I guess a European's reaction would be, "How could we use this to further delay action while genocide is occurring in our own back yard?"

      The US military drives lots of research because they aren't motivated by profit. Some of the more interesting things in the world have come out of military funding- like this Internet thingy you're using to slam USAsians with.

      I guess this is an offtopic, trolly flamebait.

      • My comments re: the military were primarily aimed at the slashdot posters whose reactions were on the lines of 'cool, we could use this to build military exoskeletons like in Alien' and also the the poster who suggested arming soldiers with six of them on a backpack so soldiers could fight with many weapons at once. Yup, as a European who as you rightly points out has 'genocide in my back yard' I get very sensitive to responses which suggest war or weapons are cool.


        I'm sorry, I just think it's really sad that there are people whose first reaction on seeing new tech is asking the question - I wonder how we could turn this into a weapon? I think it's desperate that we have to be grateful to the military for funding projects, that we have to have discussions on the lines of 'we spent a lot of money producing an improved killing machine and as a minor by-product something useful for people came along' - why not cut out the bit in the middle and just fund things which may be useful?

        I still stick by my statement that it's generally sad that companies have to find a profit angle (e.g. 'help the disabled' -though that's no bad thing) to get research paid for, I wish our countries could be more forward thinking, and it looks like you agree with me on this point

        Regarding the 'genocide happening in our back yard' here in Europe, yes, it is terrible, and I wish we could find a good way of stopping it. I get the feeling that it is more likely to happen through social integration rather than further arms funding, including by supporters from outside countries (support from the US for armed struggle in Northern Ireland could be mentioned here...), and covert encouragement by countries who may make political or financial gains.

        Troll for the day - how come it's all the oil producing countries that people want to go to war with? How come we're not worried about the human rights abuses and terrorist activities by dictators in other less economically significant countries?


  • From the BBC Story:
    It is hoped the programming needed to make a prototype arm which can fetch a drink could be completed within a year.
    OK. So here's the world's most advanced robot hand, and it's going to fetch a drink. This doesn't seem like something a disabled person would need, this seems like something an extremely lazy person would need. Yes, it's an extremely interesting hand

  • OK, back when I was about 8-10 years old (can't remember exactly), I got obsessed about building a robot. It simply had to be done, and I pestered my father (an electronics engineer) mercilessly about it. He tried to explain that it was just NOT a simple project, but I wouldn't listen.

    Finally, I wore him down, and "we" (meaning him, and I watched) built a robotic hand. It was actually pretty clever, considering the primitiveness of it. The thumb, index finger and middle fingers were completed before I FINALLY lost interest and saw that it wasn't as easy as I thought.

    He basically used some steel pipe that he filed into joints, and used springs to return the fingers to the outstretched position. A cable running through the pipe connected to the end of the finger tips caused them to contract.

    Unfortunately, the middle finger broke off at one point, and has been lost. For the first time on the web, here are some pictures [geocities.com]. It was made a little under 30 years ago or so. I should have taken a picture of the fingers contracted, but I didn't think of it until now. Maybe I'll go back and add one. :)

    My father died about 10 years ago, but this is one my most treasured possessions. It's a testament to the fact that he seldom blew me off when I was interested in something, and did his best to help me (and I probably deserved to be blown off for this request!)

  • Bionic hand, bah. I'll stick with my amputee-modified chainsaw.

  • Human assistance (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Demon-Xanth ( 100910 ) on Thursday August 08, 2002 @02:22PM (#4034447)
    "Disabled people are quite clear that we need adequate support and personal assistance which is flexible.

    "This is not only to do the basic tasks, but also to do other, more sophisticated tasks, which are essential to our well being, such as getting out of the house, meeting new people and having genuine control over our daily living."

    The problem with this quote is basically it's saying "Disabled people need slaves". Last I checked there's not a large pool of reliable, trustworthy people that want to become slaves. My grandpa has gone excessively senile and my grandma has to do everything for him. Now, I love my grandpa, but I'd never be able to stand having to be on call 24/7/52 whenever he needed anything. What these "gadgets" ARE good for is working towards the next best thing: independance. Being able to do everything you want to do under your own initiative instead of having someone else do it. Leaving the house and meeting friends when you want to, and not having to convince, or order, someone else to.

    Lets face it, you can't manufacture human slaves. At least not in the US :)

    • Speaking as an authentic disabled person, I'd say that robots are snazzy and neat and cool and not really going to make a major difference in most disabiled folks lives. A simple matter of little gadgets or tricks and techniques has covered the "day to day living" gap nicely for me using stuff I could find at a dollar store or have made for me by bending plastic into various shapes and stuff.

      So I see the guy's point that inventing these things 'for the disabled' isn't particularly spectacular.

      What disabled folks need more than robots are things that you can't easily fix or build... laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (to establish equal footing and allow even for simple things like curb cuts in sidewalks) to solutions to social hurdles and social perceptions. Those are the bigger, more critical issues. Being able to brush your teeth in the morning is just a matter of finding the right trick; being able to hold a job and interact with your peers without hassle is considerably more complicated.

  • It can't yet be attatched to a person, so what they're essentially saying is that they have come up with a robot replacement for the Adams Family's pet, Thing the Hand...
  • My old art teacher ("Stelarc) in high school was doing this kind of stuff in the late 1970's. here [msstate.edu] is a photo of him with it. This arm would fully duplicate whatever one of his own arms was doing.
  • couldn't they run a few power lines and a digital signal to an intergrated controler instead of all those wires?
  • to decide what the disabled need? My wife is disabled, and a fully articulated prothesis with a neurokenetic interface is exactly what she would love to have (as long as it didn't cause pain).
  • Is this going to change the way standard over-40 male medical examinations are done?

    I'm not sure whether such would be an improvement.

    "Microsoft up the Wazoo" would no longer be just a cliche.

  • Can anyone... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SkyLeach ( 188871 ) on Thursday August 08, 2002 @02:44PM (#4034549) Homepage
    Translate this into plain english for those of us who never took physics?

    Strength:

    * Wrist : 1.5Nm
    * Distal : 0.5 Nm (Fingers / Thumb)
    * Proximal : 1.0 Nm (Fingers / Thumb)

    Are we talking million $ man strength here or more like tinkertoy strength?

    • Re:Can anyone... (Score:2, Informative)

      by klaviman ( 543484 )
      according to NASA [nasa.gov] the mean torque strength for their astronauts is 13.73 Nm. That would be comparable to the 1.5Nm that this robotic hand can do. i think.
      • Well, thats hard to say. On Nasa's site they are showing the mean torque to be 13.73 Nm for strength in the forearm, not the hand/wrist. so I guess that leaves the question of "is the wrist 10% the strength of the forearm?"

    • Re:Can anyone... (Score:3, Informative)

      by func ( 183330 )
      Well, say 1 Nm at the proximal end - my index finger is (pulls out digital caliper) is about 90 mm from first joint to fingertip, so that's around 1 Nm/(0.09m)= 11.1 N, or about 1.1 kg worth of force (2.5 lbs) at the fingertip, if the finger was kept straight. Not very much, in other words.

    • Re:Can anyone... (Score:3, Informative)

      by -=Izzy=- ( 80039 )
      Certainly, these are measurements of torque. Given that we can convert imperial to english.
      Newton metres (Nm) x 8.85 = Pounds-force inches (Ibf in; lb in)

      --
      Wrist: 13.275 pound/inches
      Distal: 4.425 pound/inches
      Proximal: 8.85 pound/inches
      ---

    • Re: Again... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by SkyLeach ( 188871 )
      Thanks for translating it into Newtonian english for me, but the second part of my question still goes unanswered.

      Assuming unlimited strength at the elbow how much (in jym-room barbell english) can this arm lift and swing?
  • well - I dont know exactly how the "user" would get it to form the position desired - but one interesting way would be to wear a glove on the oposing hand with sensors that would transfer the desired position to the "Mano-de-Skywalker" - so it would just mimic/mirror the position that the oposing hand is in.

    I know that the "claws" that are worn by some one-armers are opened and closed with movement of the shoulder and shoulder-blades....

  • Unfortunate... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Restil ( 31903 ) on Thursday August 08, 2002 @03:08PM (#4034774) Homepage
    It's unfortunate that disabled people are constantly used as a reason for inventing new gadgets

    Its also unfortunate that the cold war was indirectly responsible for putting men on the moon.

    Its unfortunate that some of the initial research into nuclear power plants was for the development of the atomic bomb.

    Its unfortunate that people die to establish and protect freedom.

    Many of the luxuries we take for granted today were initially created to serve some desparate need. That humanity as a whole benefits from the results of efforts to relieve the suffering of a few, should not be taken to mean that those efforts or results are "unfortunate". Its called progress. Its motivation. Its all about the itch that needs to be scratched.

    And I seriously doubt those who are disabled consider those efforts to be "unfortunate" in any way.

    -Restil

  • Not that funky... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cr0sh ( 43134 ) on Thursday August 08, 2002 @03:36PM (#4035016) Homepage
    When I think funky, I think "non-anthromorphic" - this definitely doesn't fit that description, though it does seem to be a cool (if a bit pricy) item (especially since there is a site [washington.edu] describing how to build those same actuators cheaply).

    No, when I think "funky robot hand" - I always think of that extremely dextrous, three-fingered robot hand that was shown way back in the 1980's on such shows like "That's Incredible" and "Beyond 2000" - I can't find any pictures online of it, though I think it was one of the incarnations of the Utah/MIT Dextrous Hand Master system (I found plenty on the system, but they don't have the same hand I remember). One thing I remember that was most funky about the hand was that the fingers could flex inward and outward, to hold and manipulate large ring type pieces. Each finger had base abduction, and multiple flexing movement - it seemed to be driven by steppers with flexible cables. They had a demo (which seemed staged, and the hand without feedback sensors at the time) showing it handling and manipulating various items - very impressive, fluid, and beautiful to watch in action.

    Does anyone here know of what I am talking about - and can anyone find images? I admit I didn't do a major exhaustive Google search - only delved a few pages in the results...

  • It should, so it can scream "TALK TO THE HAND!!! [imdb.com]"

  • From the Shadow Robot Co. page: We are exploring the possibility of making the fingers and thumb detachable. If this is of interest to you, please indicate the fact.

    Hey, why stop there? Why not provide specialized appendages that can plug into the hand in place of the fingers, like pliers, screwdrivers, scissors, milkshake blenders... French ticklers...

    'Course, it does open the possibility of misplacing your digits. Imagine leaving your pliers at home and arriving at work with a buzzing silver bullet for a thumb.

    I hate it when that happens.

  • A time jumping hyperalloy combat chassis Terminator series manufactured by SkyNet sent back to 1984 to hunt down and kill the future mother of John Conner, Sarah.
  • I can see where a robotic arm would be useful for people with atrophied muscles, or who lost a limb.

    But disabled people without heads are called.... dead.

  • Emulating biology? Why? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sheetsda ( 230887 ) <doug DOT sheets AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday August 08, 2002 @03:55PM (#4035188)
    Supposing that one of my hands was missing one of these might be a nice thing to have for everyday applications, but why are we limiting ourselves to emulating biology? why not take our bodies in a drastically different direction? All those nerve endings that used to control the dexterous muscles in a hand could be used for more than just controling a new hand, given a little practise. Back to supposing my hand was missing, I spend a great deal of time typing every day, I'm sure there are more than enough nerve signals flowing through my wrists to create every character on a standard keyboard, but there would need to be an intermediate interpretation/conversion device. With such a device I could keep one hand on the mouse while typing at full speed. Disablity becomes advantage.

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