PiSquare Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 A 55-year-old former competitive weightlifter is one of four people in the US to receive an artificial retina in a facility in Ann Arbor. A fifth is scheduled for next month. This artificial implant is part of a system that includes a video camera and transmitter housed in a pair of glasses. Images are converted into pulses which stimulate the retina's remaining healthy cells, which then in return relay signals to the optic nerve. I also read about bionic hands now able to sense shape and texture, resulting in no crushing of cups and other objects anymore when trying to grasp it. The hunt to solve one of the most difficult challenges in prosthetics has been solved. And we thought bionic body parts would only become a reality much later in our lifetime! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scifiohmy Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Wow! I've heard of artificial limbs but artificial eyes is a new one on me! I wonder how much something like that costs. Regardless, I bet the people who receive it find it to be priceless! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregb Posted April 26, 2014 Report Share Posted April 26, 2014 It's a fascinating and much needed market! Here is the link to the Bionic Eye storyhttp://www.wcvb.com/health/michigan-man-among-1st-in-us-to-get-bionic-eye/25663260#!FYTA2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiSquare Posted April 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2014 Thank you for the link, Gregb. A scientist made a fascinating remark a few years ago. He said that those who are still alive by 2020, would 'comfortably' live until they are 120 years old due to technology, bionic body parts, cloning or organs, etc. It made me think of ancient tales where many of the characters were always on a quest to find the eternal life source. Little did they know it would become a reality through machines rather than potions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arissa Posted April 28, 2014 Report Share Posted April 28, 2014 I am not sure I really want to live that long. I already feel old now and get the "aches and pains" that I should not have for another 20 years. At this rate I might end up being the first in line for an upgrade or three. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiSquare Posted May 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2014 I am not sure I really want to live that long. I already feel old now and get the "aches and pains" that I should not have for another 20 years. At this rate I might end up being the first in line for an upgrade or three.I absolutely agree! Why stay here on earth longer than needed? However, if bionic parts can replace the aches and pains, I will be right next to you first in the queue, arissa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celestia Posted May 6, 2014 Report Share Posted May 6, 2014 Wow, super interesting! Speaking of prosthesis, etc., I remember hearing about the first 3D printers and my husband and I said to each other, they will be able to make so many things with this, like guns, construction components and body parts! I'm also not sure that I want to bother being here long enough to need additions to whatever the Universe gave me, if it would be just to extend my life? No thanks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiSquare Posted May 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2014 I read up on 3D printers and find the technology fascinating. The formal name for 3D printing is actually 'additive manufacturing' and the 3D printer is a machine using materials such as plastic, metal, nylon, and over a hundred other materials to create a 3D model of an object. It can also print end-user products, quasi-legal guns, aircraft engine parts and even human organs by using a person's own cells! The 3D object is built layer by successive layer until the object is complete. These layers are built using different techniques, e.g. where the material is melted and extruded in succinct layers, or where a bed of powder material such as nylon or titanium is hardened layer upon layer. 3D printing is labeled by Mark Fleming as a "disruptive technology of mammoth proportions... It will change the world as we know it. Before you know it". RainMan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RainMan Posted May 8, 2014 Report Share Posted May 8, 2014 All this new technology is good and I hope it can be beneficial, but could someone please re-name it? Whenever I see the term "3-D Printer" I picture a printer, you know, the kind that prints paper, spitting out a usable gun and it doesn't register. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffy Posted May 8, 2014 Report Share Posted May 8, 2014 All this new technology is good and I hope it can be beneficial, but could someone please re-name it? Whenever I see the term "3-D Printer" I picture a printer, you know, the kind that prints paper, spitting out a usable gun and it doesn't register. I, too, detest the term 3D-printer: it doesn't describe what it does, just how it does it. Personally I've been pushing the word "fab" (derived from "fabrication") which has been popular in it's negative form in high tech for a while ("fabless semiconductor" describes a business that designs semiconductors but does not actually manufacture them). This is off topic though, so if you want to discuss it, open a new thread over in Computer Science. If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe, :phones:Buffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiSquare Posted May 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2014 I absolutely agree, RainMan and Buffy! At first I could not get my mind around a printer printing a 3D bionic ear, so I decided to find a real life example where I could follow the process of creating a 3D object from a 2D picture. Surprisingly, these type of video clips are common and easy to find. See this video clip, it is incredible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted May 11, 2014 Report Share Posted May 11, 2014 ... I'm also not sure that I want to bother being here long enough to need additions to whatever the Universe gave me, if it would be just to extend my life? No thanks...I am puzzled why you and Pi don't want to stay alive as long as possible. :vava: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigD Posted May 12, 2014 Report Share Posted May 12, 2014 Here is the link to the Bionic Eye story http://www.wcvb.com/health/michigan-man-among-1st-in-us-to-get-bionic-eye/25663260#!FYTA2Wow, Greenberg and Liu’s device took a long time to develop and come to the market. I first heard of it about the time they were doing founding work in the early 1990s at Johns Hopkins, and again in 2002-2004, when they implanted 16-electrode versions of the “Argus Retinal Prosthesis” in 6 subjects. The latest, approved by the FDA Feb 2013, has 60 electrodes. More amazing IMHO was work on “the Drobel eye” (what’s nowadays called an “Intracortical visual prosthesis”) by Bill Drobel which works by directly stimulating the visual cortex, so in principle could work for someone who, through accident or birth, had no retinas. I recall this device was presented in mid 1980s popular TV science news as actually having been implanted in test subjects. Later, I discovered that actually only a single “Drobel eye” has ever been implanted, in Jan 2000. Reportedly infection around the connectors passing through “Patient Alpha” Jens Naumann skull and scalp required their removal in Feb 2003, disabling the system, and after Dr. Drobel’s death in 2004, work on it ended. This Wired article is the best account likely credible account I’ve found on this, while this page of uncertain credentials has useful information about it, including a link to Jens Naumann’s personal webpage, which largely promotes his recent memoir book on the subject, and has [url=this link some good photos of him and the system. My main takeaway from Drobel’s ultimately limited success is amazement that the brain can “learn” to a interpret a relatively crude image “drawn” on its with electrodes to produce true visual perception, that it takes great business acumen, not just electronic and medical imagination and ability, to deliver a successful visual prosthetic, and if you’re going to pull the sort of low-budget, high-tech biomedical engineering daring-do Drobel did, Portugal is a good choice of jurisdictions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiSquare Posted May 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2014 I am puzzled why you and Pi don't want to stay alive as long as possible. :vava: This might not be classified as scientific or appropriate for this forum, Turtle, but here goes ... Why would I want to stay alive as long as possible in my current body with all types of gadgets and bionic parts if I can come back in a new life in another body? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted May 12, 2014 Report Share Posted May 12, 2014 (edited) This might not be classified as scientific or appropriate for this forum, Turtle, but here goes ... Why would I want to stay alive as long as possible in my current body with all types of gadgets and bionic parts if I can come back in a new life in another body? A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. ~ Unattested Proverb or if you prefer: A living dog is better than a dead lion. ~ Ecclesiastes IX Edited May 12, 2014 by Turtle PiSquare 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregb Posted May 13, 2014 Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 We're getting closer to real cyborgs lol FDA approves 'Star Wars' bionic armhttp://www.cnn.com/2014/05/12/tech/innovation/deka-bionic-arm-kamen/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 PiSquare 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiSquare Posted May 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 Absolutely fascinating, Greg! The article indicates that DEKA can now 'legally' market and sell the bionic arm in the United States. This sentence could be interpreted that the bionic arm already existed for some time, at least, but it only received FDA approval now. Frightening stuff ... what else is happening in hi-tech laboratories all over the world? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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