Todd Kuiken, PhD joins us on the PopTech stage with Jesse Sullivan, who has been written up as the first bionic man. Kuiken is from the Neural Engineering Center for Artificial Limbs at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
Says Todd to the audience, “We have access to artificial limbs, but how do you tell an artificial arm what to do?”
Jesse is the first person in history to truly feel with his artificial hand. A computer controlled plunger is placed over the chest where Jesse feels his hand to touch. When the hook squeezes harder, Jesse feels more pressure. Within the first two weeks, he could control 2 or 3 things at once…
Todd asks Jesse what kinds of things he could do today versus two years ago using the last generation technology?
“I can probably go to the store and pick up stuff for my wife,” says Jesse. I think eventually I could tie a shoe with a human rotation. When you’ve got control from left to right, the possibilities are great. You have wrist reflection. With the other system, you have rotation of the wrist and that’s the extent of it.”
Jesse continues, “I can paint, vacuum the house, get laundry in and out of the dryer, but I can’t fold towels yet.” The audience laughs. I’m thinking – what man can? Jesse can also trim hedges and mow the lawn.
Todd talks about where they want to go in the future and what some of their goals are. In other words, the future of targeted muscles……
–More nerve transfers
–More control signals by dividing the nerves into different paths
–nerves contain info to many muscles
–they need to figure you what nerve parts go where
Advanced Signal Processing
–they want to give him a hand that does more than the ability for the hand to simply open and close, i.e., being able to use fingers.
–they want to develop haptic interfaces and add more texture to senses.
Photos of Jesse with the new device here.
Tag: PopTech Tag: PopTech 2005
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
