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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jun/16/future-robotics-bionic-limbs-disabled tony

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Angelina Jones
People walk around with cochlear implants

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https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2017/04/04/the_future_of_human_augmentation_and_performance_enhancement.html

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Angelina Jones
People have been implanted with deep brain stimulators

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9 Pieces of Bionic Tech That Will Make You Superhuman

Nov 20, 2018 · Check out these bionic technologies that equip people to do more ... create various innovative materials that enhance our ability Tony

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Tony wiginton

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Tony wiginton

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Human Body Modifications You Can Expect in the next Decade

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Human Body Modifications You Can Expect in the next Decade

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Bionic eyes are a thing! They are currently used to treat hereditary and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and rely on a camera mounted on glasses feeding inputs to electrodes attached to the retina. This technique is a remarkable, though still imperfect, means of reversing a form of blindness.

Another kind of intraocular bionic lens is being developed by the Ocumetics Technology Corp and is currently being tested in clinical trials. The aim of the product is to restore “clear vision at all distances, without glasses or contact lenses” regardless of the age of the patient. Ideally, “three times better than 20/20 vision” could be achieved and laser eye surgery could eventually be rendered obsolete.
-Makayla Rivera

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Future prosthetic: towards the bionic human

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Future prosthetic: towards the bionic human

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There are two main challenges involved in developing prosthetics. The first is in designing the mechanical limb itself. With increasing miniaturisation of electric motors and advances in computing power, this is becoming less of a challenge than the second, still-towering difficulty; finding ways to interface the machine with the amputee’s body. How can somebody who has lost a limb control a prosthetic? Is it possible to think about moving a prosthetic arm and move it with brain power alone; or to get even closer to the natural condition, and move it without barely any conscious thought? Can the sense of touch be replicated by a machine, even with today’s advanced sensors? And how about the sense which we rely on but is so fundamental that we are barely aware of it: proprioception — knowing exactly where our limbs and extremities are without having to look? How close can an amputee be returned to natural function with technology? And how is that technology likely to develop in the coming decades?
-Makayla Rivera

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The Engineer | News and analysis from the world of engineering

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Get the latest engineering news, analysis and jobs across all engineering sectors and disciplines

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Sara

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Bionic technology can be defined as the flow of concepts from engineering to biology and vice versa. The advancement in bionic technology over the years has helped scientists to create various innovative materials that enhance our ability.

Bionic devices such as prosthetic arms and prosthetic legs have even helped people with disabilities lead a normal life. But science fiction has literally raised our expectation, and researchers and innovators all over the globe are putting best of their efforts to build bionic tech that could someday actually make us superhuman.

Here's a list of applications of bionics that may soon enable us to integrate superhuman powers!

The H.U.L.C exoskeleton which has a titanium body was developed by Berkley Bionics and Lockheed Martin mainly keeping soldiers in mind. It is a 3rd gen exoskeleton which allows the wearer to easily lift up to 200 pounds of weight and also decreases the amount of metabolic energy required by the wearer.

The exoskeleton essentially provides a person with superhuman capabilities by increasing the strength as well as endurance. The H.U.L.C exoskeleton was made for soldiers to help them march long distances carrying heavy loads with low consumption of oxygen and heart rate.

Strength and endurance are the most important features a soldier requires especially while going on long missions. The exoskeleton increases the endurance of the wearer by lowering the oxygen requirement with the help of proprietary technology fueled by HULC™.

Source: Sam Bald/Flickr

The bionic lens is a proposition by many developers and manufacturers that will have a virtual display and could have multiple uses from improving eyesight to video gaming. A company called Ocumetics Technology Corporation is at the forefront of this technology.

The company has developed bionic lenses that can replace the natural lens in the human eye through the most common cataract surgery. This lens is made from bio compactable, inert and polymeric material that does not cause any bio-physiological changes in the human eye.

It not only is an answer to all the vision-related problems, but it also enhances the human eyes capability. It can focus vision at wider ranges than normal eye by adjusting the curvature of the lens.

This is achieved as the bionic lens is connected to the muscles in charge of adjusting the curvature of normal lenses. The 20/20 vision is improved three times with the help of a bionic lens which enables a person to see things even at a distance of 30 feet.

Above all the most interesting feature of this lens is that it is built with components which allow future access for modifications and upgrades. Preparations for clinical trials are already underway and the company is waiting to receive regulatory approval to perform the surgery.

Source: Z22/Wikimedia Commons

The first thing that comes to our mind when we hear of an invisibility cloak is the one used by Harry Potter in the movie. Well, the geeky device in the movie has inspired many and might be developed into a real product very soon.

Researchers from the Montreal National Institute of Scientific Research have been onto this for quite some time and claims to have developed a material invisible to some bands of light using a technology named spectral cloaking.

To achieve cloaking, meta-materials are used which can bend light and give a non-existing appearance to the eye. Many researchers from different places are trying to perfectly develop the technology of invisibility, and if successful, it will have a wide range of security applications in the future.

Source: The U.S. Army/Flickr

A mind controlling helmet might make you think about gaining telepathic abilities just like X-men's Professor X. Developing such a tech might require more years, but DARPA's mind controlling helmet does help to control a person's mind to some extent.

DARPA has been trying to implement this technology of ultrasonic brain stimulation into a helmet to help soldiers on the field. This helmet will have the abilities to reduce pain, stress, and anxiety, improve the duration of alertness time and enhance cognitive abilities.

The helmets are fitted with microcontroller devices and ultrasound transducers which emit sound waves of high frequency targeting certain parts of the brain. These sound waves are responsible for controlling the mind of the person wearing it.

A large portion of people in the world is insulin dependent due to diabetic problems. These people not only have to keep a control on the food items they eat but also have to go through the trouble of taking insulin regularly.

However, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is in the process of creating an artificial pancreas which will be able to monitor the sugar levels in the blood and adjust the insulin levels of the body accordingly.

Simply saying, this device combines two existing technologies, a glucose monitor and an insulin pump into one, to create this portable pancreas. Once available in the market it can help people with diabetes (type 1) lead a normal life and save a majority of them from the high risks of having too much or too little blood sugar.

You are familiar with the replacement of a knee or a limb, but have you heard about replacing a part of the brain? There have been researches going on to develop technology to replace parts of the brain for some time, and neuroscientist Theodore Berger from the University of Southern California is in the process of developing a chip for the same.

The computer chip being developed by Berger is expected to replace hippocampus which is the part of the brain that controls spatial understanding and short-term memory loss. Hippocampus is that part of the brain which is frequently damaged when a person experience stroke or due to Alzheimer's disease.

Being able to replace a part of the brain like hippocampus with a chip and restore its function can be a great breakthrough both in the scientific and medical field.

Nuada, a Portuguese company will soon be providing people with a smart glove which will grant the wearer with extra abilities. The gloves have been developed jointly by Vitor Crespo and Filipe Quinaz, and it provides the wearer with great coordination and backhand strength by augmenting the movement of digits and palm.

The gloves have electronic tendons and behave as an electromechanical support body which allows the wearer to perform nearly impossible tasks. It helps to lift heavy objects easily, improves hand grip and allows a person to hold objects for a long time without causing any muscle fatigue.

The Nuada gloves are made up of flexible, breathable, thin and smart textiles which offer comfort to the wearer. It can also be used by a person suffering from hand injuries or people with reduced hand strengths to perform their daily tasks without putting a strain on their hand.

The Luke Arm is a prosthetic arm named after the famous Luke Skywalker of Star Wars. It was designed by Dean Kamen with funding from DARPA and is the only prosthesis in the market with a powered shoulder.

The Luke Arm is more intuitive than other prosthetic arms available in the market, provides greater grip and is fully automatic. The Luke arm also has the option of being controlled separately with various devices like EMG, IMU Foot Control, Pressure Switch, Pressure Transducer, Rocker Transducer, and Linear Transducer.

The arm uses electrodes to pick up electric signals from the wearer's muscle and offers more degrees of movement and flexibility. It is without a doubt a great innovation in the area of bionics.

The human ear is an organ without which we can't think of living a life. Imagine being able to amplify the ability of the human ear using technology. The Here earbuds were developed in Doppler Labs by Noah Kraft and his team.

It allowed a person to change the input of ear as per the need. With this technology in hand, one can easily mute selected sounds, turn up the volume of desired ones, adjust the bass, and much more.

The Here Earbuds made use of a set of microphones to send sound into the ears through a DSP (Digital Signal Processor). These earbuds essentially grant hearing abilities more than what an average person possesses.

The amazing piece of bionic tech was an ideal solution to provide hearing aid, however, the company had to shut down its operations due to the inability to secure enough capital to keep the business running.

As these bionic technologies are tinkered with and perfected further, gaining superhuman capabilities might become a reality sooner than we think.

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9 Pieces of Bionic Tech That Will Make You Superhuman

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Bionic technology can be defined as the flow of concepts from engineering to biology and vice versa. The advancement in bionic technology over the years has helped scientists to create various innovative materials that enhance our ability. Bionic devices such as prosthetic arms and prosthetic legs have even helped people with disabilities lead a normal life.

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Bionic eyes help people who have problems with their eyes

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MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

With an estimated 285 million people worldwide with visual impairment, many treatments and technological innovations have long been in development. The panacea of restoring sight to the blind is the stuff of sci-fi: the bionic eye.

A bionic eye, or retinal prosthesis system, works by bridging the gap between light entering the eye and the optic nerve - which is what communicates images to the brain so we can discern what we see.

So far, the only US FDA-approved device is the Argus II from a company called Second Sight. It works by using a camera integrated to a pair of eyeglasses and an implant on the surface of the eye that taps into the optical nerve. Currently, Argus II users are capable of perceiving only shadows and outlines of figures.

Another up-and-coming development is Melbourne's diamond-electrode bionic eyes that may be able to perceive facial expressions and read large prints. Scientists behind the tech are are arranging for clinical testing.

These bionic eye technologies don't restore vision to a perfect level and are far from ideal, but there's continued development that may soon get us there.

A CYBORG FUTURE

When we finally invent tech that restores perfect sight, what then? Beyond healing blindness, bionic eyes could potentially make us superhuman.

Light comes in different wavelengths and humans can only see the visible spectrum made of colored light. If a bionic eye could let us see the entire electromagnetic spectrum - from radio waves to gamma waves - we'd be able to "see" heat, identify types of gases by sight, and even look through walls.

We may also be able to zoom in and out of our field of vision (tech that already exists), record what we see, and automatically sync it to the net with our Wi-Fi-ready eyes. It's all speculation, but nobody can deny that innovative technology is turning science fiction into reality.

VISIONS OF THE FUTURE

Bionic open up an array of applications in several fields: studying microbes could be done without equipment, soldiers can detect mines in a field, manual airport security could beef up surveillance - the possibilities are endless.

It may be several decades before we get bionic eyes that perfectly restore visual acuity. Until then, scientists will be keeping a sharp eye out for every development.

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Bionic Eyes Are Coming, and They'll Make Us Superhuman

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With an estimated 285 million people worldwide with visual impairment, many treatments and technological innovations have long been in development. The panacea of restoring sight to the blind is the stuff of sci-fi: the bionic eye.

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Everything You Wanted to Know About the World's Most Advanced Bionic Arm

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Everything You Wanted to Know About the World's Most Advanced Bionic Arm

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Cody Routh

The author thinks that bionics are helpful.

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Seeing the world's most advanced bionic arm in action is kind of mind blowing. Johnny Matheny, the man who wears it, lost his left arm to cancer eight years ago. Thanks to the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, he basically has a left hand again.

If you haven't watched the episode, go do that! And then read our interview--edited for length and clarity--with Michael P. McLoughlin, the chief engineer of research and exploratory development at the APL. It's basically a one-stop guide to the present and future of bionics.

Let's start with this: How does Johnny's arm work?

If I have an amputation and I think about moving my hand or wiggling my fingers, the brain produces those signals and they travel down the nerves, but once they hit the amputation, they have no place to go because the hand is gone.

So what you can do is take the nerve that, say, used to run to finger and can attach that to a different piece of muscle. So now when I think, "Move my finger," a different piece of muscle somewhere in my arm or chest will contract and I can measure that contraction. This surgical procedure is called targeted muscle reinnervation.

Doctors mapped the nerves that controlled his arm so they could reroute the signals to his new arm.

For somebody that's operating the prosthetic as an amputee, they get this procedure and then when they think, "Move my finger," a little piece of muscle in the chest vibrates, and the arm knows that if that piece of muscle vibrates or moves, then that means it needs to move the prosthetic finger. In effect, it's a way that we can communicate with the brain without actually having to implant something in the brain. For an amputee, who has an intact peripheral nerve system--those are the nerves that leave the brain--targeted muscle reinnervation turns out to be a very, very straight-forward way for them to control a prosthetic limb.

What's the learning curve for using targeted muscle reinnervation with a bionic prosthesis?

Intuitive control is really important. Think about what you do with your hand, the way you move your fingers. Now suppose I let you control a prosthetic limb and give you an Xbox controller with a little joystick on it and a few buttons, and I tell you, "Make the arm do this, okay?" It's very difficult for you to take that thought--which we do very naturally and with very little concentration--and convert that into "How do I move the joystick?" and "Which buttons do I push?"

It would take even an experienced gamer days, if not weeks or months, to get really any level of proficiency at that. But you and I do it all the time. We move our hands and we hold objects and we hardly give it a thought. So that's what we want to really be able to do, is translate that thought, that intuitive thought, into actions of the prosthetic without having to go through these intermediary, unnatural types of things.

The technology allows Johnny unprecedented intuitive control of his prosthetic arm.

And I think that's why many of the people who have used the modular prosthetic limb say they don't really consider it as a machine. They really feel like it's an extension of themselves because the brain thinks, "Move my hand," and the hand moves in a way they would expect it to move, so it's a very natural thing.

So reinnervation combined with the prosthesis means amputees can do things. Can they things?

Targeted muscle reinnervation reconnects some of the nerves that bring sensation, say from the finger back to the brain. So now if I press wherever that nerve happens to be, the brain interprets that as, "Hey, I'm getting a signal from my finger." The amputee will actually say, "I feel my finger again." It's not, "I feel something on my arm or chest," it's "I feel my finger."

Right now, the modular prosthetic limb has over 200 sensors in it, and we've just used a small fraction of those. What we really see in the future, as we get better at this and we get better connections to the brain, is being able to provide a much greater wealth of signals back.

Doctors are working on sending signals from the hand back to Johnny's brain.

I always compare it to the Internet because everybody understands the Internet, right? Back when nobody knew about the internet, it was a big deal to send a text message. Today, we get frustrated if we have trouble downloading an HD movie. With this technology, we're still sending text messages; we have very low information channels to the brain. We're still able to do remarkable things with those channels, but just think what happens when we start scaling this and it goes up by a factor of ten--a hundred, a hundred thousand--what we'll be able to do.

What other kinds of disabilities can this technology address? It can't just be amputees, right?

So we've started this program for amputees and people with spinal cord injuries, but if you think about it, what are all the other types of disabilities that people have? Stroke, ALS. These people have trouble getting around, they lose their eyesight. These are all things that are due to the fact that our bodies sometimes can't do what our brain commands.

I'm getting a little older now. I can still think about doing all the things that I did when I was 20 years old, but my body can no longer do them. This technology is opening up a channel that helps us assist the body in doing those things. So as we lose our mobility, as we lose our strength, as we lose our eyesight, as we lose our hearing, we can actually begin to replace that.

(A)s we lose our mobility, as we lose our strength, as we lose our eyesight, as we lose our hearing, we can actually begin to replace that.

There are some remarkable things already. We have people with Cochlear implants who are able to hear again. There are retinal prosthesis for blindness that have some of level of success. Those are still very early, but I think the promise of all this is that we're beginning to reach back into the brain. Right now we give people artificial knees and artificial hips. Soon we'll be able to give them so much more.

Why did you start with a bionic arm?

We focused on arms because the arms are very complex, and if you think about all the things you do--eating and fixing meals--you need them. We've solved the mobility problem with wheelchairs and other devices pretty readily. But for somebody who doesn't have use of their arms anymore, there's really not much out there for them.

Can you talk about some of the challenges of rebuilding one of the more complicated body parts and connecting it to the brain?

There are two major challenges. The first one was being able to determine the brain's intent: what did you want to do, how did you want to move your arm, how did you want to position your hand. The second thing was making a device that could actually replicate what we do with a hand. So you think about all the individual joints and being able to move fingers individually. It's a very complex system. It's also complicated when you think about size versus strength: We can curl 40, 50 pounds, we can pick up a jug of milk. To be able to replicate all that in a device that still looks like a human arm and weighs about the same as a human arm is a really difficult engineering challenge.

Doctors faced a huge engineering challenge matching the complexity and strength of a human hand.

So this is basically a huge step up from the status quo of upper extremity prosthetics.

When you think about what's happened in lower extremity prosthetics, we're arguing about whether somebody with an amputation should run in professional sports because their prosthesis might give them an unfair advantage. You've never heard anybody make that argument about an upper extremity amputee. So the challenge to us was, how do we get somebody from the level of wearing a hook to a level where they can do the types of things that they did with their natural limb?

(H)ow do we get somebody from the level of wearing a hook to a level where they can do the types of things that they did with their natural limb?

We want to have that same argument about upper extremity prosthetics. For people to say, "It's not fair because they have a prosthetic." We're not there yet, but a lot of the fundamental technology is there. And one of the challenges that we have is that it's a much smaller population and so it doesn't have the business drive that brings people into lower extremities research, or to fight diseases like diabetes that have much bigger populations (ed note: diabetes can lead to neuropathy in the lower extremities, which often leads to amputation).

Spinal cord injury seems different than amputation. Can you talk about prostheses for people who aren't missing limbs, but rather have a damaged nerve pathway?

For somebody that has a, say, a spinal cord injury, they're still able to think about moving their arm, but now for some reason--either because of a physical injury or a disease--the signal can't get from the brain to the body. Those nerves all still light up and they make little electrical signals, those signals just have nowhere to go. The signal is trapped.

As an electrical engineer, I think of that as a broken cable somewhere. So what we can do in that case is actually insert very small electrodes into the area of the brain that, say, controls the arm. By doing that, we're now able to actually measure those signals. And by using computer algorithms, we can then look at essentially the codes of the brain and interpret that set of patterns. This one means I'm going to reach out in a certain direction, or that I'm going to open and close my hand, or that I'm going to shake my fingers in a certain way. And basically we just bridge that gap. It's very similar to what we do in some of the cases with amputees, but in the spinal injury case, we go directly to the brain.

What we want to give that person who has a spinal cord injury is the ability to naturally move an arm. It doesn't matter if the arm is right next to that person and she wants to eat a chocolate bar, or if it's on the other side of the room and she wants to prepare a meal.

What we want to give that person who has a spinal cord injury is the ability to naturally move an arm. It doesn't matter if the arm is right next to that person and she wants to eat a chocolate bar, or if it's on the other side of the room and she wants to prepare a meal. What it does is give her the chance to move beyond her physical limitations and begin to interact in the world again in a way that she couldn't. And if you ask many of these patients what they're thinking about when they used the technology, they just say, "I'm thinking about moving my arm." It's not a mechanical device, it's an extension of themselves.

There's a really compelling psychological component here that transcends the technology.

Our goal in this whole project is to give back something that was lost. The ability to reach out and pick up food so that we can feed ourselves or reach out and touch another individual is just a huge thing for all of us. Just imagine if you can't do that anymore, if you can interact with somebody, talk to them, but you can't physically interact with them unless they reach out and touch you. When all of a sudden that starts to come back and you give somebody the ability to move a limb, or replace a limb that's lost, it's an intensely powerful experience.

Advanced prosthetics bring the powerful ability to restore physical interaction.

Frequently we'll have somebody that is an amputee say, "Hey, I'm thinking about maybe having targeted muscle reinnervation surgery, and I'd like to just come in and try the arm out and see what it's like." So what we can do is we can actually put electrodes on whatever residual arm limb that they have. We've seen in several instances where we hook up the electrodes and say, "Okay, think about bending your elbow," and in a few seconds, they're bending the elbow. And I've literally seen people burst into tears. It's like, "Oh my God, I haven't been able to do that in 5, 10, 20 years." And it's just incredibly powerful. That simple thing--just bending their elbow--has just a tremendous impact on them. So you just imagine the possibility when we give them the ability to actually do what I'm doing now, what that's going to mean to them.

The arm doesn't look like a human arm, though. It looks very much like a robot arm.

When we started this program, we thought a lot about the need to make cosmetic coverings so that if I looked at the prosthetic, it actually looked like my real hand. But what we found is that wasn't really the important thing. What was really the important thing was that it moved and functioned like the hand that was lost.

As a matter of fact, a lot of the younger military personnel we worked with felt having a black robotic arm is kind of like a cool thing. They don't want it to look like a natural arm. But overwhelmingly, it's that functionality that matters--that it's an arm and not some mechanical device that's moving around. People want the fluidity and the range of motion and everything that they lost. When you give that back, it's just a tremendous experience. The patients we've been able to work with are just a remarkable group of men and women of all ages and backgrounds.

Doctors found that for patients, functionality trumped aesthetics.

You mentioned that the development of upper extremity prosthetics is constrained by the small number of patients. Is that constraint changing at all?

What's really exciting right now is that we've reached a point--I'll call it a tipping point--where we've developed all the basic capabilities. If you were going to try to do this 10 years ago, you would've had to figure out how to build an arm, how to interface with the brain, and then all the algorithms to interpret that information. But today we've got all that, and it enables us to democratize the technology. We've intentionally kept the the modular prosthetic limb as an open device so anybody can interface with it. For instance, we have a prosthetic limb, and you can build an app for it. You can use that prosthetic limb for anything you want to use it for. So it doesn't have to be for somebody, say, that has spinal cord injury. If you wanted to use it in a factory to do something, you could potentially use it for that. We're really only limited by people's imaginations and ability to plug into this great technology.

What's the next step? When does this technology become a normal part of daily life for amputees and people with disabilities?

With the technologies that are ready to go today, it's primarily an investment problem. When we talk about amputees, it's a fairly small population of patients. A very complex robot device that can mimic the human hand costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. In order to develop the volume and get the cost down, you need to have multiple applications that go beyond just the prosthetic space. That market just hasn't developed yet. There's a lot of interest in it, but we really need to develop applications where we can take this technology and use it for other things that will eventually drive the cost down. So we really need a combination of further advancement in the technologies, but also investment and business expertise to help move this forward.

The thing that keeps myself going and Albert Chi going is that we're reaching the point where this can really break out and get into the home and stay with people in their everyday lives. That's the threshold that we want cross now.

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Everything You Wanted to Know About the World's Most Advanced Bionic Arm

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Seeing the world's most advanced bionic arm in action is kind of mind blowing. Johnny Matheny, the man who wears it, lost his left arm to cancer eight years ago. Thanks to the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, he basically has a left hand again.

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Are Bionic Superhumans on the horizon?

“Around 220,000 people worldwide already walk around with cochlear implants- devices worn around the ear that turn sound waves into electrical impulses shunted directly into the auditory nerve.-Mialanie G.

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Bionic superhuman

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Are bionic superhumans on the horizon? | CNN

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We're in the midst of a bionic revolution that could bring a future of augmented brains and bodies, and of bionic haves and have nots.

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It’s about the pieces that make a superhuman. JP Larralde

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bionic technology can be defined as the flow of concepts from engineering to biology and vice versa. The advancement in bionic technology over the years has helped scientists to create various innovative materials that enhance our ability.

Bionic devices such as prosthetic arms and prosthetic legs have even helped people with disabilities lead a normal life. But science fiction has literally raised our expectation, and researchers and innovators all over the globe are putting best of their efforts to build bionic tech that could someday actually make us superhuman.

Here's a list of applications of bionics that may soon enable us to integrate superhuman powers!

The H.U.L.C exoskeleton which has a titanium body was developed by Berkley Bionics and Lockheed Martin mainly keeping soldiers in mind. It is a 3rd gen exoskeleton which allows the wearer to easily lift up to 200 pounds of weight and also decreases the amount of metabolic energy required by the wearer.

The exoskeleton essentially provides a person with superhuman capabilities by increasing the strength as well as endurance. The H.U.L.C exoskeleton was made for soldiers to help them march long distances carrying heavy loads with low consumption of oxygen and heart rate.

Strength and endurance are the most important features a soldier requires especially while going on long missions. The exoskeleton increases the endurance of the wearer by lowering the oxygen requirement with the help of proprietary technology fueled by HULC™.

Source: Sam Bald/Flickr

The bionic lens is a proposition by many developers and manufacturers that will have a virtual display and could have multiple uses from improving eyesight to video gaming. A company called Ocumetics Technology Corporation is at the forefront of this technology.

The company has developed bionic lenses that can replace the natural lens in the human eye through the most common cataract surgery. This lens is made from bio compactable, inert and polymeric material that does not cause any bio-physiological changes in the human eye.

It not only is an answer to all the vision-related problems, but it also enhances the human eyes capability. It can focus vision at wider ranges than normal eye by adjusting the curvature of the lens.

This is achieved as the bionic lens is connected to the muscles in charge of adjusting the curvature of normal lenses. The 20/20 vision is improved three times with the help of a bionic lens which enables a person to see things even at a distance of 30 feet.

Above all the most interesting feature of this lens is that it is built with components which allow future access for modifications and upgrades. Preparations for clinical trials are already underway and the company is waiting to receive regulatory approval to perform the surgery.

Source: Z22/Wikimedia Commons

The first thing that comes to our mind when we hear of an invisibility cloak is the one used by Harry Potter in the movie. Well, the geeky device in the movie has inspired many and might be developed into a real product very soon.

Researchers from the Montreal National Institute of Scientific Research have been onto this for quite some time and claims to have developed a material invisible to some bands of light using a technology named spectral cloaking.

To achieve cloaking, meta-materials are used which can bend light and give a non-existing appearance to the eye. Many researchers from different places are trying to perfectly develop the technology of invisibility, and if successful, it will have a wide range of security applications in the future.

Source: The U.S. Army/Flickr

A mind controlling helmet might make you think about gaining telepathic abilities just like X-men's Professor X. Developing such a tech might require more years, but DARPA's mind controlling helmet does help to control a person's mind to some extent.

DARPA has been trying to implement this technology of ultrasonic brain stimulation into a helmet to help soldiers on the field. This helmet will have the abilities to reduce pain, stress, and anxiety, improve the duration of alertness time and enhance cognitive abilities.

The helmets are fitted with microcontroller devices and ultrasound transducers which emit sound waves of high frequency targeting certain parts of the brain. These sound waves are responsible for controlling the mind of the person wearing it.

A large portion of people in the world is insulin dependent due to diabetic problems. These people not only have to keep a control on the food items they eat but also have to go through the trouble of taking insulin regularly.

However, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is in the process of creating an artificial pancreas which will be able to monitor the sugar levels in the blood and adjust the insulin levels of the body accordingly.

Simply saying, this device combines two existing technologies, a glucose monitor and an insulin pump into one, to create this portable pancreas. Once available in the market it can help people with diabetes (type 1) lead a normal life and save a majority of them from the high risks of having too much or too little blood sugar.

You are familiar with the replacement of a knee or a limb, but have you heard about replacing a part of the brain? There have been researches going on to develop technology to replace parts of the brain for some time, and neuroscientist Theodore Berger from the University of Southern California is in the process of developing a chip for the same.

The computer chip being developed by Berger is expected to replace hippocampus which is the part of the brain that controls spatial understanding and short-term memory loss. Hippocampus is that part of the brain which is frequently damaged when a person experience stroke or due to Alzheimer's disease.

Being able to replace a part of the brain like hippocampus with a chip and restore its function can be a great breakthrough both in the scientific and medical field.

Nuada, a Portuguese company will soon be providing people with a smart glove which will grant the wearer with extra abilities. The gloves have been developed jointly by Vitor Crespo and Filipe Quinaz, and it provides the wearer with great coordination and backhand strength by augmenting the movement of digits and palm.

The gloves have electronic tendons and behave as an electromechanical support body which allows the wearer to perform nearly impossible tasks. It helps to lift heavy objects easily, improves hand grip and allows a person to hold objects for a long time without causing any muscle fatigue.

The Nuada gloves are made up of flexible, breathable, thin and smart textiles which offer comfort to the wearer. It can also be used by a person suffering from hand injuries or people with reduced hand strengths to perform their daily tasks without putting a strain on their hand.

The Luke Arm is a prosthetic arm named after the famous Luke Skywalker of Star Wars. It was designed by Dean Kamen with funding from DARPA and is the only prosthesis in the market with a powered shoulder.

The Luke Arm is more intuitive than other prosthetic arms available in the market, provides greater grip and is fully automatic. The Luke arm also has the option of being controlled separately with various devices like EMG, IMU Foot Control, Pressure Switch, Pressure Transducer, Rocker Transducer, and Linear Transducer.

The arm uses electrodes to pick up electric signals from the wearer's muscle and offers more degrees of movement and flexibility. It is without a doubt a great innovation in the area of bionics.

The human ear is an organ without which we can't think of living a life. Imagine being able to amplify the ability of the human ear using technology. The Here earbuds were developed in Doppler Labs by Noah Kraft and his team.

It allowed a person to change the input of ear as per the need. With this technology in hand, one can easily mute selected sounds, turn up the volume of desired ones, adjust the bass, and much more.

The Here Earbuds made use of a set of microphones to send sound into the ears through a DSP (Digital Signal Processor). These earbuds essentially grant hearing abilities more than what an average person possesses.

The amazing piece of bionic tech was an ideal solution to provide hearing aid, however, the company had to shut down its operations due to the inability to secure enough capital to keep the business running.

As these bionic technologies are tinkered with and perfected further, gaining superhuman capabilities might become a reality sooner than we think.

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9 Pieces of Bionic Tech That Will Make You Superhuman

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Bionic technology can be defined as the flow of concepts from engineering to biology and vice versa. The advancement in bionic technology over the years has helped scientists to create various innovative materials that enhance our ability. Bionic devices such as prosthetic arms and prosthetic legs have even helped people with disabilities lead a normal life.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/health/bionic-arm-freddie-cook-intl-scli-gbr/index.html

Jon Ocasio

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Two amputees are the first people in the world able to control their Bionic prosthetic legs with their thought thanks to tiny implanted myoelectric sensors (IMES) that have been surgically placed in their residual muscle tissue. The IMES, which was provided by the Alfred Mann Foundation, instantaneously triggers the desired movement, via a receiver located inside the prosthesis. This process occurs subconsciously, continuously and in real-time.

The announcement was made today by Jon Sigurdsson, President & CEO of Össur, the global innovator credited with creating the world’s first Bionic prostheses for amputees.

“Mind-controlled Bionic prosthetic legs are a remarkable clinical breakthrough in next-generation Bionic technology,” Sigurdsson said, speaking at the company’s Capital Markets Day in Copenhagen. “By adapting not only to the individual’s intentional movements but to intuitive actions, we are closer than ever to creating prosthetics that are truly integrated with their user.”

*The author believes that these bionic prosthetics are doing brilliant things.-Makayla R.

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At Össur, Life Without Limitations is more than just a slogan; it has been a passion for decades.

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A global leader in orthopaedics, the Company employs the smartest minds and the most advanced technologies to help change lives.

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https://www.vox.com/2014/11/11/7175455/cyborg-ethics-moreno

Vinny

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Bionic arms are on the horizon

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Moses

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STEM-Works - Prosthetics Articles - Are bionic superhumans on the horizon?

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3D printed skin could help create bionic super humans 

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3D printed skin could help create bionic super humans 

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Adam R

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Scientists have created a 3D-printed bionic skin, potentially creating a way for robots to "feel" like humans do-and for humans to become more robotic, giving them "capabilities beyond the limitations of biology."

The team from the University of Minnesota has developed a new process to produce a stretchable electronic sensory fabric using a specially designed 3D printer.

The fabric-or device-is made up of four layers. There is a base layer of silicone, on top of which two layers of electrodes sit. These are coil-shaped pressure sensors. At the top is a layer that holds the whole thing together while it sets. This top layer is washed away at the end, leaving the pressure sensors exposed.

The 3D printer works by using four "inks" that make up the different layers. The end product is a flexible fabric of electronic sensors that can stretch up to three times their original size.

But what are the real-world applications? Scientists say the possibilities for future development are "endless."

The team who developed the fabric have not yet printed it directly onto human skin, but they did show it could be printed onto the curved surface of a model hand. They also connected the fabric to skin, finding it could be used to detect a pulse in real time.

Michael McAlpine, lead author of the study, published in the journal Advanced Materials, tells Newsweek that the technology could be used for developing new therapies where people have lost their sense of touch-such as leprosy, for example. "So long as the device is interfaced to any active nerve endings [it could help]," he says. "The device is sensitive enough to 'feel' your pulse, but more complex devices will need to be printed in the future in order to achieve the senses of temperature and texture."

Another avenue could be to incorporate the device into prosthetics, meaning the replacement limb could feel its environment.

In terms of robotics, McAlpine says it could be used in medicine, allowing surgeons to feel tissue remotely during minimally invasive robotic surgeries-at present, they have to rely on cameras alone.

But it could also be used to make robots more human-like. "There is great interest by companies such as Boston Dynamics [a private company that builds advanced robots] to create robots which behave and act more and more like humans," he says. "This is an important area. Equally as important from my standpoint is giving humans the ability to be more and more like robots, which means imparting bionic functionalities onto humans, which augment their capabilities beyond the limitations of biology."

"Imagine a soldier out in the field who carries a 3D printer in his or her backpack, and needs some device on the spot such as a chemical warfare sensor. The soldier could use the printer to directly print such a sensor onto his/her arm as a bionic solution."

He says there is a "ton of work" that will need to be done before the technology is developed further, however. "Our printing process can already handle materials with functionalities that are leaps and bounds beyond the limited selection of hard plastics that traditional 3D printers print. Ours can print a wide palette of electronic materials, biological materials, soft materials, and so on. But to truly be able to print on, say the body, we need to further develop our scan and print technologies to be able to print onto moving, complex surfaces, such as the intricate topology of a trembling hand.

"Our next steps will be to expand our catalog of sensor capabilities, integrate them with other 3D-printed technologies and biologies, and move toward printing not just on a model hand but a real hand. This could impact numerous areas, from surgery to bionics to warfare strategic advantages."

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3D-printed "skin" could give robots a sense of touch-and create bionic superhumans

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Scientists have created a 3D-printed bionic skin, potentially creating a way for robots to "feel" like humans do-and for humans to become more robotic, giving them "capabilities beyond the limitations of biology." The team from the University of Minnesota has developed a new process to produce a stretchable electronic sensory fabric using a specially designed 3D printer.

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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/15/being-bionic-how-technology-transformed-my-life-prosthetic-limbs tony wiginton

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“Tens of thousands of people have been implanted with deep Brain stimulators”

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So many people are missing arm and leg and people with bionic body parts change there life and helps them do harder stuff cause they are bionic tony wiginton

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Bionic arms and legs are the robotic version of our old body parts

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Bionic arms and legs are the robotic version of our old body parts

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Bionic technology can be defined as the flow of concepts from engineering to biology and vice versa. The advancement in bionic technology over the years has helped scientists to create various innovative materials that enhance our ability.

Bionic devices such as prosthetic arms and prosthetic legs have even helped people with disabilities lead a normal life. But science fiction has literally raised our expectation, and researchers and innovators all over the globe are putting best of their efforts to build bionic tech that could someday actually make us superhuman.

Here's a list of applications of bionics that may soon enable us to integrate superhuman powers!

The H.U.L.C exoskeleton which has a titanium body was developed by Berkley Bionics and Lockheed Martin mainly keeping soldiers in mind. It is a 3rd gen exoskeleton which allows the wearer to easily lift up to 200 pounds of weight and also decreases the amount of metabolic energy required by the wearer.

The exoskeleton essentially provides a person with superhuman capabilities by increasing the strength as well as endurance. The H.U.L.C exoskeleton was made for soldiers to help them march long distances carrying heavy loads with low consumption of oxygen and heart rate.

Strength and endurance are the most important features a soldier requires especially while going on long missions. The exoskeleton increases the endurance of the wearer by lowering the oxygen requirement with the help of proprietary technology fueled by HULC™.

Source: Sam Bald/Flickr

The bionic lens is a proposition by many developers and manufacturers that will have a virtual display and could have multiple uses from improving eyesight to video gaming. A company called Ocumetics Technology Corporation is at the forefront of this technology.

The company has developed bionic lenses that can replace the natural lens in the human eye through the most common cataract surgery. This lens is made from bio compactable, inert and polymeric material that does not cause any bio-physiological changes in the human eye.

It not only is an answer to all the vision-related problems, but it also enhances the human eyes capability. It can focus vision at wider ranges than normal eye by adjusting the curvature of the lens.

This is achieved as the bionic lens is connected to the muscles in charge of adjusting the curvature of normal lenses. The 20/20 vision is improved three times with the help of a bionic lens which enables a person to see things even at a distance of 30 feet.

Above all the most interesting feature of this lens is that it is built with components which allow future access for modifications and upgrades. Preparations for clinical trials are already underway and the company is waiting to receive regulatory approval to perform the surgery.

Source: Z22/Wikimedia Commons

The first thing that comes to our mind when we hear of an invisibility cloak is the one used by Harry Potter in the movie. Well, the geeky device in the movie has inspired many and might be developed into a real product very soon.

Researchers from the Montreal National Institute of Scientific Research have been onto this for quite some time and claims to have developed a material invisible to some bands of light using a technology named spectral cloaking.

To achieve cloaking, meta-materials are used which can bend light and give a non-existing appearance to the eye. Many researchers from different places are trying to perfectly develop the technology of invisibility, and if successful, it will have a wide range of security applications in the future.

Source: The U.S. Army/Flickr

A mind controlling helmet might make you think about gaining telepathic abilities just like X-men's Professor X. Developing such a tech might require more years, but DARPA's mind controlling helmet does help to control a person's mind to some extent.

DARPA has been trying to implement this technology of ultrasonic brain stimulation into a helmet to help soldiers on the field. This helmet will have the abilities to reduce pain, stress, and anxiety, improve the duration of alertness time and enhance cognitive abilities.

The helmets are fitted with microcontroller devices and ultrasound transducers which emit sound waves of high frequency targeting certain parts of the brain. These sound waves are responsible for controlling the mind of the person wearing it.

A large portion of people in the world is insulin dependent due to diabetic problems. These people not only have to keep a control on the food items they eat but also have to go through the trouble of taking insulin regularly.

However, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is in the process of creating an artificial pancreas which will be able to monitor the sugar levels in the blood and adjust the insulin levels of the body accordingly.

Simply saying, this device combines two existing technologies, a glucose monitor and an insulin pump into one, to create this portable pancreas. Once available in the market it can help people with diabetes (type 1) lead a normal life and save a majority of them from the high risks of having too much or too little blood sugar.

You are familiar with the replacement of a knee or a limb, but have you heard about replacing a part of the brain? There have been researches going on to develop technology to replace parts of the brain for some time, and neuroscientist Theodore Berger from the University of Southern California is in the process of developing a chip for the same.

The computer chip being developed by Berger is expected to replace hippocampus which is the part of the brain that controls spatial understanding and short-term memory loss. Hippocampus is that part of the brain which is frequently damaged when a person experience stroke or due to Alzheimer's disease.

Being able to replace a part of the brain like hippocampus with a chip and restore its function can be a great breakthrough both in the scientific and medical field.

Nuada, a Portuguese company will soon be providing people with a smart glove which will grant the wearer with extra abilities. The gloves have been developed jointly by Vitor Crespo and Filipe Quinaz, and it provides the wearer with great coordination and backhand strength by augmenting the movement of digits and palm.

The gloves have electronic tendons and behave as an electromechanical support body which allows the wearer to perform nearly impossible tasks. It helps to lift heavy objects easily, improves hand grip and allows a person to hold objects for a long time without causing any muscle fatigue.

The Nuada gloves are made up of flexible, breathable, thin and smart textiles which offer comfort to the wearer. It can also be used by a person suffering from hand injuries or people with reduced hand strengths to perform their daily tasks without putting a strain on their hand.

The Luke Arm is a prosthetic arm named after the famous Luke Skywalker of Star Wars. It was designed by Dean Kamen with funding from DARPA and is the only prosthesis in the market with a powered shoulder.

The Luke Arm is more intuitive than other prosthetic arms available in the market, provides greater grip and is fully automatic. The Luke arm also has the option of being controlled separately with various devices like EMG, IMU Foot Control, Pressure Switch, Pressure Transducer, Rocker Transducer, and Linear Transducer.

The arm uses electrodes to pick up electric signals from the wearer's muscle and offers more degrees of movement and flexibility. It is without a doubt a great innovation in the area of bionics.

The human ear is an organ without which we can't think of living a life. Imagine being able to amplify the ability of the human ear using technology. The Here earbuds were developed in Doppler Labs by Noah Kraft and his team.

It allowed a person to change the input of ear as per the need. With this technology in hand, one can easily mute selected sounds, turn up the volume of desired ones, adjust the bass, and much more.

The Here Earbuds made use of a set of microphones to send sound into the ears through a DSP (Digital Signal Processor). These earbuds essentially grant hearing abilities more than what an average person possesses.

The amazing piece of bionic tech was an ideal solution to provide hearing aid, however, the company had to shut down its operations due to the inability to secure enough capital to keep the business running.

As these bionic technologies are tinkered with and perfected further, gaining superhuman capabilities might become a reality sooner than we think.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
9 Pieces of Bionic Tech That Will Make You Superhuman

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Bionic technology can be defined as the flow of concepts from engineering to biology and vice versa. The advancement in bionic technology over the years has helped scientists to create various innovative materials that enhance our ability. Bionic devices such as prosthetic arms and prosthetic legs have even helped people with disabilities lead a normal life.

# data[].attributes.headline
Pieces of Bionic Tech That Will Make You Superhuman

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Pieces of Bionic Tech That Will Make You Superhuman

# data[].attributes.body
Bionic technology can be defined as the flow of concepts from engineering to biology and vice versa. The advancement in bionic technology over the years has helped scientists to create various innovative materials that enhance our ability.

Bionic devices such as prosthetic arms and prosthetic legs have even helped people with disabilities lead a normal life. But science fiction has literally raised our expectation, and researchers and innovators all over the globe are putting best of their efforts to build bionic tech that could someday actually make us superhuman.

Here’s a list of applications of bionics that may soon enable us to integrate superhuman powers!

*The author believes that great things are happening and soon to come with these new pieces of bionic technology.-Makayla R.

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Interesting Engineering is a cutting edge, leading community designed for all lovers of engineering, technology and science.

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Bionic superhumans  are intelligent

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"Bionic technologies are becoming a reality, and are integrating with the human body itself. Humans and technology are coming together in a multitude of ways."

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As technology has become more sophisticated, it has become more intimate. Mobile devices alone are like a small, personal window into the vastness of the web.

But technology hasn't stopped there. Bionic technologies are becoming a reality, and are integrating with the human body itself. Humans and technology are coming together in a multitude of ways.

The fusion of technology with our humanity will create complexities. Many believe that technology will be the way around human evolution. Before any possibility of the singularity, bionics will be a huge force in allowing humans to overcome their physical limitations.

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As technology has become more sophisticated, it has become more intimate. Mobile devices alone are like a small, personal window into the vastness of the web. But technology hasn't stopped there. Bionic technologies are becoming a reality, and are integrating with the human body itself.