Science & Technology

Star Wars-style 'bionic hand' developed

By T.K. Randall
February 25, 2015 ·  8 comments

Artificial hands have been in development for years. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Richard Greenhill and Hugo Elias When Darth Vader cuts off Luke Skywalker's hand during the final scenes of The Empire Strikes Back, the young Jedi later has his limb replaced with a realistic synthetic replica that he can control as if it were his own - the perfect artificial hand.

Now thanks to the work of Prof Oskar Aszmann and his colleagues at the Medical University of Vienna, thousands of amputees could soon have the chance to be fitted with something extremely similar that blurs the line between science fiction and reality.

Several patients have already benefited significantly from being fitted with one of Prof Aszmann's sophisticated artificial hands which pick up and interpret signals from the brain to initiate movement.Each recipient is first trained over a period of time to move a virtual hand on a computer so that the system can learn how to read and respond to their electrical signals.

By the time they had been fitted with the artificial hand the patients found that they were able to accomplish most everyday tasks with ease just as though they were using a real hand.

The researchers also hope to eventually be able to provide additional functionality to the hand including the ability for the patient to regain the sensations of hot, cold and physical touch.

Source: ITV News | Comments (8)

Tags: Artificial Limb, Bionic Hand