Excellent, picture-packed review of prosthetics

Not an academic review, but it you ever need a picture for a presentation, there are plenty to nab here.

Powerful Prosthetics: The Ultimate Integration of Design and Technology (WebUrbanist)

TED talks worth noting

Of course almost all TED talks are worth noting, but three are particularly rocking. The first two are by Aimee Mullins. The first is more of a show and tell Q&A session, discussing the various legs she has and the stories behind them. The second is a formal talk with an interesting story about her interactions with children.





The third video, featuring Pattie Maes, discusses what her lab calls a "sixth sense" - a combination camera and projector system and is location and context aware. If you've seen some of the MIT 'cyborg' types before, think of this as the iPod-ization of that concept. Though I don't really consider this a new 'sensory' experience, the demo is pretty amazing.

Amputees in the Olympics

Two big stories today.

First, Pistorius has won his appeal, and will be allowed to run in Beijing. Pistorius is a double amputee mentioned in previous posts here.

Second, a swimmer who had their leg amputated below the knee qualified for the Olympics this year, making her the first in history. Oh, and no wimpy prosthetics, either. She did it with one leg.

Random Sunday Randomness

Remy Wahnoun sent in an article on a UCLA project of significant BCI implications. Self healing, power generating muscles. Cool on every level. As always, you can go to that ENgadget article and get the, "OMG that's so kewl I will be robo-1337 and pwn at video games" comments on Engadget, or get some more interesting feedback from the world at Slashdot. (Have I mentioned how I'm not a fan of Engadget?)

There was a nice rundown of how computers and brains differ - a topic taht the engineers tend to underestimate on oh so many levels. Oldy, but a goody.

Eye controlled surgery robot that maps the surface the surgeon is looking at in 3D and uses this map to stabilize the image and arms. Wicked awesome stuff.

And a robot riff-raff-chaser-away thingy that has been on the news and mentioned a few times by various net news outlets.

Aaaaand random fun brain stuff at Of Two Minds.

Luke, I am your double blind, placebo controlled phase two investigational medical device trial funding officer

You probably already saw this, but I had to post it as well. The Deka Luke Arm is ready for phase II funding. This the rockin Dean Kamen arm. Also, the Hopkins APL Revolutionizing Prosthetics gets a second round of funding.

Also, no need to report these, but check out the related links on BoingBoing (below).

Direct Link. Link to tech diagram.

Here are the reports (note the update on Medgadget).
BoingBoing, Medgadget, Engadget, Slashdot

Running with the story

The speculation was right. Looks like Oscar Pistorius is too fast for the Olympics. I wonder what would have happened if he had not tried as hard. You know, hold back a little, maybe throw a race or two. Then blow everyone out of the water at the Olympics. That would be awesome to watch.
[Wired props]

Anyhow, The Onion has their take on it. (Highly recommended.)

In da newz

Ah vacation. So nice. Here's what hit my radar the past few days...

The technique used by Dr Kuiken at Northwestern for control a robotic limb has been turned on its head, and used to supply touch sensation. Place some haptic sensors on the artificial arm, wire them up to various DRG afferents/efferents, and supply a little juice. (2nd report here.)

MIT, trying to map the whole damn brain. Pffft. Amateurs. Why don't they just stick to wearable motion capture systems?



Ah exoskeletons. How be-est the so rad? (Play the video above.)

DLR had their wares in the news a bit. Yay robots!

TMR going far

And last one for tonight, Natalia pointed out that Dr. Kuiken's work in Chicago has been in the news again, thanks to some advancements that led to a J Neurophys paper. You'll remember the work (targeted muscle reinnervation) from the big media blitz a couple years ago.

Long story short, they reroute nerves that were going to an amputated limb, to muscles on the chest, side, and abdomen. Patients think about moving the non-existent limb, causing the fibers to fire, thereby eliciting a EMG detectable twitch of the new target muscle. That activity is then translated into movement of a robotic arm. The new paper discusses nerve targets, and more electrodes, making movement detection 95% accurate for 16 movements.

Paper found here.

Kamen arm demoed

Engadget has a brief look at a rare DARPA arm demo. This is the Dean Kamen flavor of DARPA arms, and there's a nice little interview with footage below. No more fuzzy spy videos - everything is crystal clear. The arm is controlled by an exoskeleton type system on a staff member, and there is a little talk of the artificial skin. Sweet!

Couple Quickies

I have it on good authority (Time article) that Terri Schaivo had a DBS system implanted in a final attempt to get coherent responses from her.

Neurobot brought to my attention that PDP++ has been revived under the name Emergent Neural Network Simulator.

Some people collect coins, other...

And making the rounds on some of the social aggregator sites is this clip from, I think, the Schwartz lab. Old, but nice to see. As with any YouTube clip, don't read the comments or you will become dumber.

Learning biology? This video is quickly becoming a classic (see if you can name the organelles and processes occurring in each scene). Another nice site JD pointed out is Anatomy Travelogue.

Recycling robotics

One thing about BCI I've come to realize over the last year: The same news is rehashed over and over in the media. Many time there is no major advancement tied to the announcements, but companies and funding agencies love to see their work in the limelight. One positive aspect of this is that the labs show off more interesting material, as the basics have been previously covered.

Case in point, the Vanderbilt/Rocket powered/Goldfarb/DARPA/liquid nitrogen (or was it hydrogen) arm. Still cool as Hell, but now we get to see the funky video above. At some point I'm going to sit down and list out all the big players and their aliases (the Dean Kamen are is also a 'DARPA arm').
Covered here, here, here, and here.

Go-Go-Gadget Ankle!

Old news, but still good news. Here are some spicy stories about a robotic ankle being used to help soldiers coming back from Iraq minus a limb. The device assist in gait by simulating the movement of muscles and tendons. There are a couple projects that I always confuse. This is the PowerFoot which is meant to replace missing feet. There is mounting evidence that robot assisted gait technology is incredibly beneficial for rehabilitation from MS and other motor disorders.

Story on Medgadget, Gizmodo, CNet, I4U.

DARPA arm

I'll post more on this later (post prelim), but Wired has a nice overview of the DARPA arm project. They make mention of the Deam Kamen arm as well, and that the current control mechanism for both is myoelectric (EMG pads recording rerouted, off site, or residual muscle movement).

I just thought I'd mention that the reasons many of my posts are relate to robotic prostheses are that:
1) They make for good media, so they get plenty of coverage
2) They represent something of a parallel but separate line from what I do (decoding = neuroscience, prosthesis = engineering)
3) Aside from implantable stimulation systems, artificial prosthetics are the Mecca of neuroprosthesis. Cursor movement is great, but it doesn't tie your shoe. Additionally, they provide the possibility of extending the human body. In Sci-Fi Fantasy Future Land, there is always the possibility of having more than two arms (you laugh, but there's no evidence that this would not be possible!)

First person prosthetic blog

BoingBoing points to a blog set up by a friend of theirs, Steve, who is in the process of getting a new prosthetic leg. Interesting stuff.

Literally kicking it old school

Who needs robotic whatchamadoozy whirlygig prosthetics? World's oldest prosthetic toe unearthed in Egypt (complete with world's oldest sock lint).

via BoingBoing

Flipping the bird, sans finger - Part 2

Gizmodo has an animation of the mechanical artificial finger which requires no power. It looks like at least part of the missing finger needs to be present to apply pressure to the articulating lever. Pretty neat! Even better, I found the above YouTube video! With the silicone sleeve, you can barely tell it isn't flesh.

Beauty and prosthetics

I cannot imagine how it feels to deal with the loss of an appendage, and how that alters the image a person might have of their own body. It must be one of the most difficult challenges a person can face in the way it impacts them in day-to-day life. But, there are those that have taken this taboo topic and really shown beauty is more than just skin and bones. It gets me thinking. Is trying to hide the issue actually causing the insecurity? Does amputation amplify preexisting insecurities and provide something to blame for one's poor self-image? We've become so used to trying to cover up our blemishes with a never-ending contortionist's game of makeup, surgery, and fads that maybe just being 'real' is refreshing.


Gizmodo and MedGadget have featured Lisa Bufano's dance stylings this past week (pictured above, video at Gizmodo), but I thought I would also point to some photos of the beautiful Aimee Mullins (pictured below). Do a quick Google image search for some of her racing and fashion pictures, and prepare to be awestruck!

Self-healing artificial skin

U of I(llinois) researchers have developed a multi-layered material that can be damaged in the same spot repeatedly and 'heal' the damaged area. I would describe it, but Physorg.com gives a great synopsis:

To create their self-healing materials, the researchers begin by building a scaffold using a robotic deposition process called direct-write assembly. The process employs a concentrated polymeric ink, dispensed as a continuous filament, to fabricate a three-dimensional structure, layer by layer.

Once the scaffold has been produced, it is surrounded with an epoxy resin. After curing, the resin is heated and the ink – which liquefies – is extracted, leaving behind a substrate with a network of interlocking microchannels.

In the final steps, the researchers deposit a brittle epoxy coating on top of the substrate, and fill the network with a liquid healing agent.

In the researchers’ tests, the coating and substrate are bent until a crack forms in the coating. The crack propagates through the coating until it encounters one of the fluid-filled “capillaries” at the interface of the coating and substrate. Healing agent moves from the capillary into the crack, where it interacts with catalyst particles. If the crack reopens under additional stress, the healing cycle is repeated.

Whisper: Cochlear implant inventor honored

From the University of Melbourne:

University of Melbourne scientist Professor Graeme Clark has received the 2007 Klaus Joachim Zulch prize for his research into neuroscience and the Cochlear implant, giving hearing to deaf people.

Dean Kamen arm update

About two-three months ago, footage leaked of the prosthetic arm that Segway creator Dean Kamen was designing. It was shaky cameraphone footage without any audio. Well, looky here! We got some annotation from the man himself. Key bits:
- skin designed that looks as good natural skin
- the arm weighs 9 lbs
- fits into the 50% range for female body frames (50% of females have arms this size - I assume the structure can be expanded for men)
- 14 degrees of freedom
- titanium
- demoed with an exoskeleton control, ultimate goal is to provide haptic feedback as well.

I am particularly impressed by the fluidity of the movements, like when he begins to reach for the pad of paper.