A lost limb is difficult to recover from. Be it a hand, an arm, a foot or leg, the life of an amputee is often beset by difficulties able-bodied people will never have to experience. Though prosthetics serve to help the handicapped, they are weak substitutes for the genuine article. And with science as it exists today, prospects for technological advancements are grim.

Or are they?

Bionic limbs may seem the subject of science fiction, but researchers working with DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) have been developing a new method of moving artificial prosthetics via thought. (Note that the information from the following paragraph was drawn from this source). What once seemed so far-fetched is now a stone’s throw from completion.

The concept is not a terribly complex one. It works off of preexisting nerves still in use near the site of amputation. Targeted muscle reinnervation (colloquially known as TMR) allows the wielder to interact with their prosthesis via the aforementioned nerve centers by channeling brain waves that are then intercepted by said reassigned nerves. Here is a video demoing the device.

Testing is planned to continue into 2016, but at the moment, the RIC (Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago) is already gathering candidates to undergo fitting. Details about the process can be found here.

According to the RIC’s website, potential users of TMR must meet a strict list of criteria, that of which removes those unfortunate few who were, “born missing part or all of their arm and those suffering nerve damage, degeneration or paralysis…”

Though technology now exists that can assist the average amputee, there will still be those who do not benefit due to extenuating circumstances.

Still, such advancements are cause for celebration. It is no implausible prediction to say that prosthetics might function as well as natural limbs by the year 2020.

By 2030, prosthetics and flesh could be indistinguishable.

 

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