Meanwhile, this guy is living with one hand. And he wants a new one. Bad. I think having a hand you can’t use is something that cannot be readily experienced unless you do something like break all of your fingers simultaneously or take part in some perspective-creating experiment. I can’t imagine it. Take a second and think of 5 things you do every day that require both hands. Then 10. Then 20. It should be easy.

Now imagine you ARE this guy. You broke your shoulder, and your hand is dead. You already had two or three surgeries which amounted to nothing, and suddenly somebody gives you a choice: Get rid of your dead hand and have a brand-new artificial one NOW or get a clunky glove that makes you look like Hellboy loaned you his arm and maybe have a treatment that will enable your old hand to do pretty much the same as the prostetic in a couple of years. Or more. Maybe.

Thankfully this is not a choice I have to make now, and I think it isn’t easy to have part of you cut off and discarded. But then again having to do everything with one hand while your other decided to go on a permanent neural holiday is not easy either.

Also, as suggested, a bionic exoskeleton is, as far as I know, more expensive than the entire prostetic hand. Also, it’s essentially the same thing but less practical. It takes up room, it has dozens of acutators, and needs much more power because it constantly has to work against a limb that is essentially dead and thus usually instinctively rigid. The results are abrasions, luxations, bruises and other things you wont notice because your hand is not feeling anything, thus possibly leading to unnoticed infection. Also, such a prostetic glove is much more delicate than an enclosed prostetic, so it wears out much, much quicker, and costs much, much more.

A hand you can’t afford, isn’t a hand, a treatment that doesn’t exist yet, is not really a treatment. So in the end, I think we should leave it up to the individual whether or not he wants to do such a thing.

Oh, and: Please let go of that “Oh my, the technological singularity will consume us all!” shtick, it’s been done since cyberpunk died.

He could have had an “exoskeleton” to do the same all the while waiting for a cure to his problem (stem cells ?)

I guess mechanical engineering is going to progress fairly slowly until nanotech has matured enough to have much of a bearing on it.

We can rebuild him. We have the technology

Groovy…

What I’m saying is: Bad-ass!

Also, electrocution literally means DEATH by electric shock – electrical execution. I know that “He lost the use of his hand after an accidental shock at work.” doesn’t sound as dramatic as “ZOMG! He was freaking ELECTROCUTED!!11!!”, but it’s not correct. He’s still alive. Just sayin.

I love how this Professor likes to take the limelight for all the work; and the Prosthetist who *ARE* actually responsible for fitting and helping the chap, get no mention!

And how do I know all this? My wife works for Otto Bock as a Prosthetist :)

Electrocution is also frequently used to refer to any electric shock received but is technically incorrect.

…immediately followed by…

This choice in definition varies from dictionary to dictionary.

Do you mean to say that the “prosthetic glove” has actually been designed and built? I was just suggesting it as something one could imagine designing in cases like this where the hand is still present but totally paralyzed. As a hypothetical idea it’s not obvious why it would require more actuators for example, but if you’re saying it’s already been done I’ll take your word for it that it does have the practical issues you mention.

What about just having a robotic hand attached to some rods attached to the arm, so the bionic hand is out past the regular hand (which could be concealed in a sleeve)? Aesthetically it might be a bit odd-looking but couldn’t this be just as functional as a robotic hand attached to the stump of an amputated hand? Is the issue just that it’s easier to detect never signals from a stump than from a paralyzed hand?

Seriously though, that is truly wonderful, and unlike the Powerglove, useful.

But did they have to use the same color scheme as the Nintendo model?