Originally posted May 26, 2010

Science non-fiction

May 26, 2010

Luke needs a hand. He may be in luck.
Luke needs a better father.
Don’t know that we can help him with that.

You, our dedicated reader, must surely be thinking, “You’ve been doing this blog thing for about two weeks and you’re only now referencing Star Wars? What kind of self-respecting nerd are you?” Sorry, we’ve been slacking.

For those of you who don’t know (really, are there any of you out there?) this scene is from The Empire Strikes Backjust after Luke gets his arm cut off and learns that Darth Vader is his father.

Because Luke lived a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, he had a bionic arm immediately implanted by some weird looking, robot surgeon. This vision must seem a far way off for many amputees. The reality, though, is that this “future” is much nearer than many may think.

There has been a lot of publicity lately surrounding the Austrian man who is thriving with the use of his mind-controlled prosthetic arm. Christian Kandlbauer lost his arms after being electrocuted. Four years ago, doctors fit him with his bionic arm from the company Otto Bock. Today, he is able to drive a car and do many of the other things he was able to do before his accident. Control of the prosthetic functions on a principal called myoelectrics. This means that the implant senses muscle movements and translates these small movements into prosthetic motions. For amputees who have lost just part of their arm, the implant “feels” muscles move at the end of the damaged limb. For amputees who have lost their entire arm, doctors will re-route some of the nerves that used to control the arm into their chest, which is where the new arm is anchored.

One thing lacking in the Otto Bock design is fine motor control. Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segue, has been working on a prototype called the “Luke Arm” to overcome this shortcoming. He recently showed off the capabilities of the “Luke Arm” on the Colbert Show. As see in the video clip, amputee wearing the “Luke Arm” can pick up and eat a grape without crushing it and can eat with chopsticks. Pretty cool!

Unfortunately, the Otto Bock prosthetic is just coming on the market in Europe and the “Luke Arm” is looking for a partner to help send it through clinical trials. Both may be prohibitively expensive. Nevertheless, these represent huge breakthroughs in the capabilities of applied science and engineering. Surely it is only a matter of time before the cost comes down and amputees get some treatment straight out of science fiction.

Now if only we had some light sabers …