back to article DARPA adds 'sense of touch' to robot hand

One of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's (DARPA) out-there projects has borne fruit, with the agency announcing that it's partially restored a sense of touch to someone with a spinal cord injury. The achievement, outlined here, followed on from a July announcement that DARPA had given a former US serviceman Glen …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Awesome... err No Comment

    There are some threads that are, destined to become smutty.

    1. Elmer Phud

      Re: Awesome... err No Comment

      Did you toss that one off in a hurry?

      1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

        Re: Awesome... err No Comment

        Some start and are gone very quickly.

        To many, it's considered a shortcoming.

  2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Go

    "There are some threads that are, destined to become smutty."

    Oh yes.

    Once once can detect the touch of the robot hand connected to you how long before you can detect the touch of someone else's ?

    One small step for human kind.

    One giant leap for cyber sex.

    1. Tom Maddox Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: "There are some threads that are, destined to become smutty."

      And one giant step forward towards reducing overpopulation!

    2. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      Re: "There are some threads that are, destined to become smutty."

      "Once once can detect the touch of the robot hand connected to you how long before you can detect the touch of someone else's ?"

      I'd be happy to feel my last three fingers on my right hand and my right outer calf downward.

      Yes, I'm quite serious.

  3. Ragequit
    Devil

    Double edged sword...

    It certainly has great promise for spinal injuries and amputees but if DARPA is involved their already wondering if this can be used for torture without "physical" harm. I hope someone involved with the design of these neural interfaces has the sense to release an easy hack for them that would install something of a limiter on data coming from various sensors.

    Either that or one can hope that a mental training regiment will be developed to help soldiers tune out the sensory data coming from these interfaces making it all but useless for the would be malicious side of such tech.

    Speaking of which I got the impression these interfaces were hard wired. So I suppose it'll be some time before we have to worry overly much about big brother. :P

    Of course on the vein of cybersex there will undoubtedly be some who are excited over the prospect of other side of the coin.

    How long until a company patents the 5 senses? :P

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Re: How long until a company patents the 5 senses?

      With the USPTO ?

      Yesterday.

    2. Fink-Nottle

      Re: Double edged sword...

      > It certainly has great promise for spinal injuries

      I've often wondered why there aren't more exo-devices for people with spinal injuries that affect the upper limbs. You'd think it'd be an easier project than fitting an amputee with a whole new arm.

      > How long until a company patents the 5 senses?

      Thing is, what we generally lump together as touch - the skin senses - are in fact a complex array of different sensory receptors positioned at varying depths in the skin. Not the easiest thing to duplicate.

      And, of course, certain groups would claim prior art ...

      1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

        Re: Double edged sword...

        "Not the easiest thing to duplicate."

        Indeed, the wetware interface to that complex downstream wetware is even more complex and variably located within the skull.

        We don't have standard equipment, nor standard interfaces and the computing cluster is far from standard.

  4. deconstructionist

    the ghost of the machine

    Imagine if we could connect to a robot hand over the net and get real feedback , I would have it installed in all our engineering sections so I could smack'em hard every time the push out rubbish.

    But think of this in the corporate 2.0 society we live in , doctors doing remote surgery over the net with a real sense of touch and feedback, artists, musicians the possibilities of remote performance would be endless, the robot is dead long live the net bound Cyborg. don't fear A.I 2.0 ...we are it.

  5. Mark 85

    Related?

    I saw some mainstream media reports that a doctor is ready to do an experimental human head transplant. I'm wondering if the Borg can be far behind in all this?

    All in all, with recent advances such as osseointegration and now this, it could make life for amputees and the spinal cord injured a lot better. The only hang up, as always, is cost and insurance companies as many of them still claim that micro-processor knees are "experimental" and won't cover them.

    1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      Re: Related?

      "The only hang up, as always, is cost and insurance companies as many of them still claim that micro-processor knees are "experimental" and won't cover them."

      Indeed, back in the early 1990's, a man I knew of died, as coronary bypass surgery was considered experimental by his medical insurance company.

      Today, spinal disc replacement is considered experimental by most US medical insurance companies, but bony spinal fixation is their standard, ignoring later disc failures by increased stresses.

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