Persons with disabilities are often looked upon with frown or with pity because they are incapable of doing even the minutest tasks especially if the disability is the fact of not having arms or hands.
Let’s face it; our arms and hands are what we use to do our daily tasks. We take a bath; do our writing, eating, work and almost everything with the use of our arms and hands. So what happens if these arms and hands were taken from us by mere accident? Surely we’ll feel terrible and find ourselves depressed over the fact. But now, technology offers a solution. Science has made ways to say that having disabilities is not the end of life.
Many artificial arms have been invented to help persons with disability. Some were even tested on monkeys. Another one is a prosthetic arm designed by Dean Kamen’s called “Luke” Robotic Arm which was a mere experiment and may come to an end because of lack of funding. Others use other kinds of prosthetic arms. And now, the newest mind-controlled robotic arm comes to life.
Christian Kandlbauer, an Austrian who has lost both his arms because he was electrocuted in 2006, is now the subject of the first ever test of the mind-controlled robotic arm. He is now seen driving his car and all sorts of chores with his new arms. So how is this possible?
Otto Bock Healthcare, a manufacturer of wheelchairs, rehabilitation and medical products, makes things possible to offer mobility to clients, uses Targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) which works by connecting nerves to the chest which reacts to a microprocessor connected to the limbs of the arms. This makes the brain relay all sorts of messages to the arms.
Christian’s arms were transplanted by Surgeons at Vienna General Hospital in a six hour operation. It can be deemed that sometimes not all operations are successful and not all people are amenable to surgical procedures because the costs may prove to be too expensive. Also, there have been no clarity as to the material of the arm; there were no explanation if for example the arms were accidentally wet.
Would the micro-processor bug down? Or how much weight can it hold if the amputee is going to carry heavy loads? The effect of having the micro-processor being connected to the chest has no known or proven advantage or disadvantage. Will it prove to be harmful or not? How long will this robotic arm prove to be useful? Will it be another disposable arm? Thanks to this new technology it offers hope but “no thanks” because technically, nothing really measures up to the real thing. Besides, just thinking of the costs of this new technology can make one pee in his pants!
You might also like
 |
 |
 |
 |
Loading ...