Hasta La Gadget!

Prosthetic limbs are getting more and more advanced. Between Oscar “Blade Runner” Pistorius, also known as “the fastest man on no legs”, and mind-controlled mechanical legs, it’s only a matter of time before full cybernetic replacement body parts are available. UK-based BeBionic is helping to advance this cause by giving amputees a very functional, and very cool-looking prosthetic hand.

The BeBionic3 is myoelectric prosthetic hand that uses residual neuro-muscular signals from its wearer’s own muscles to operate some very precise functions. This hand is almost as functional as Luke Skywalkers’s hand in The Empire Strikes Back. It allows amputees to write with a pen, delicately hold glasses, bottles and even crack eggs.

It has 14 hand positions and grips, and also comes in a skin-tone glove so that cyborgs can blend in with regular folk.

[via DVice]

We did take a look at the Bebionic 3 bionic hand not too long ago, and here we are with yet another video of what the future of prosthetic limbs could possibly resemble. Here is a little primer for those who are a wee bit late to the game – the Bebionic 3 functions as a myoelectric prosthetic hand, where it will rely on residual neuro-muscular signals that are fired from your muscles in order to operate a number of precise functions. Needless to say, seeing this hand in action does remind us of Anakin Skywalker’s bionic arm after Count Dooku gave him a lesson in lightsaber duels.

As for the Bebionic 3, it might not be able to help you channel the Force in one of the myriad of ways that only a Jedi (or Sith) knows how to, but at the very least it is pretty handy (pardon the pun) when it comes to holding a writing instrument, handling something as delicate as an egg with the correct pressure, or even hold glasses and bottles without breaking them. Nigel Ackland demonstrated the Bebionic3 prosthetic hand as shown in the video above.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: bebionic3 bionic hand launched, Bebionic electric hand ready to rock and roll,

When a robot wields a nasty looking kitchen knife, it is not your worst nightmare come true with machines taking over the world. No sir, chances are, you have stumbled upon CIROS, a South Korean robot that was developed by the good people over at the Korean Institute of Science and Technology, where it was specially designed to provide homebound assistance, while relying on complicated algorithms so that it can identify everyday items which it crosses paths with within a home environment. For instance, in order to whip up a simple salad, it is capable of identifying and grabbing the relevant items from the fridge, is also able to serve tea, and scrub dishes once you are done with your snack.

Perhaps holding a less terrifying looking knife might be a better idea for the CIROS Salad Bot. Do you think that it is waterproof up to a certain extent, considering how it is supposedly able to do the dishes as well. Something tells me that a human will still be far ahead of robots when it comes to cooking even many years down the road, as robots have yet to hit the highs as seen in Star Wars and Star Trek sci-fi universes.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Autonomous wearable robot arms turn you into a Doc Ock, sort of, Panasonic dry head spa robot prototype ,

Advancements in biotechnology continue to amaze me. We’re rapidly approaching the point where human/cyborg combinations are becoming more and more plausible, as is evidenced by this recent accomplishment by the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. This past sunday, a man wearing the first “thought-controlled bionic leg” used the limb to help him ascend 103 floors of the skyscraper formerly known as the Sears Tower.

This past Sunday, 31-year-old Zac Vawter made history by climbing countless stairs inside the iconic Chicago skyscraper, all with the help of this incredible bionic leg. This mechanical and technological marvel is controlled by Vawter’s own neurons, and was developed by the Rehabilitation Institute’s Center for Bionic Medicine, and partially-funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. You can see Zac and his amazing bionic leg in action in the video clip below:

The leg actually interacts with Zac’s nerve impulses, allowing him to climb stairs much more easily than he could with an ordinary prosthetic leg. Vawter lost his leg after a motorcycle accident back in 2009, and his trial of the leg will help him and potentially many others with disabilities to walk again.

Have you ever wondered whether we will be able to reach the level of medical advancement such as found in I, Robot and the Star Wars universe? Body parts that are replaced with bionic segments which not only offer the ability to function in an even more efficient manner compared to the original, and yet is far longer lasting. Perhaps mankind has just taken another step closer to such an age, where research engineers over at Vrije Universiteit Brussel have managed to develop a new powered transtibial prosthesis that is capable of mimicking natural ankle movement, while ensuring that it uses energy in an efficient manner. Rather they relying on powerful motors which start and stop with every step, this particular new system will run a small electrical motor non-stop, ensuring that it keeps stretching a rubber band, which will result in energy that the bionic foot can use as a source of motive power.

Through the act of lowering the overall energy requirement of prostheses, this means that you need not use more batteries, and smaller batteries are always a good thing as it ensures that the overall weight of the device remains lowered. Not only that, being smaller would mean it is more quiet, while more efficient motors also help simplify design as well as implementation purposes.

Called the AMP-Foot 2.0, it relies on a spring that is called the plantar flexion (PF) spring, helping accumulate energy from the dorsiflexion phase of stance while the actuator is actually injecting energy into another spring, where the latter is known as the push-off (PO) spring – and that happens during the complete stance phase. A locking system will see energy stashed in the PO spring, before heel off (HO) occurs, which remains within the system for a release so that a push-off can happen. We do wonder just how much something like this is going to cost when it becomes publicly available.

Press Release
[ Robotic ankle makes a splash copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]