50 years ago, artificial limbs weren’t nearly as responsive
Excerpt from the November 18, 1967 issue of Science News
LIFE AND LIMB Prostheses have come a long way in 50 years. Some new artificial limbs can restore wearers’ sense of touch or be controlled by wearers’ thoughts.
DARPA
Very subtle control of artificial limbs by means of a tiny electronic device may become possible.… [The] electronic device … [is] designed to be injected into a muscle through a thick hypodermic needle. A tiny package strapped to the outside of the limb will beam radio waves at the device, which will return them, modified by the electric current produced in the muscle. — Science News, November 18, 1967
Update
Artificial limbs have become more sophisticated than in the past, and users’ control of today’s prostheses is more precise. In 2012, researchers announced that a paralyzed woman could control a robotic arm with her thoughts with the help of a brain implant (SN: 6/16/12, p. 5). And in 2014, a man regained the sense of touch through a prosthetic hand via electrodes implanted in his arm’s still-functioning nerves (SN: 3/8/14, p. 16). Several companies are developing other high-tech prostheses.
F.C. Livingstone. Electric limbs. Science News. Vol. 92, November 18, 1967, p. 495.
M. Rosen. Brain implants let paralyzed man move robotic arm. Science News Online, May 21, 2015.
L. Sanders. Prosthetic provides sense of touch to man who lost hand. Science News. Vol. 185, March 8, 2014, p. 16.
M. Rosen. Mind to motion. Science News. Vol. 184, November 16, 2013, p. 22.
R. Ehrenberg. Bionic women (and men) get closer to reality. Science News. Vol. 182, December 29, 2012, p. 20.
R. Ehrenberg. Paralyzed woman grips, sips coffee with robot arm. Science News. Vol. 181, June 16, 2012, p. 5.
