Paralyzed Man Touches Girlfriend With Robotic Arm

[Furik 832]

(CBS/AP) A paralyzed man from Pennsylvania put his new thought-controlled robotic arm through its paces recently, using it to reach out and touch his girlfriend's hand.

"It wasn't my arm but it was my brain, my thoughts. I was moving something," said Tim Hemmes, 30, who became a quadriplegic seven years ago after a motorcycle accident. "I don't have one single word to give you what I felt at that moment. That word doesn't exist."

Hemmes - whose emotional moment came during a month-long experiment at the University of Pittsburgh - is among the pioneers in an ambitious quest for thought-controlled prosthetics. The ultimate goal is to give paralyzed people greater independence - the ability to feed themselves, turn a doorknob, hug a loved one.

The robotic arm is considered the most humanlike bionic arm to date - even the fingers bend like real ones. It's controlled by electrical signals from tiny brain electrodes implanted into the brain.

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[Maiku 4]

Woot. Go Pittsburgh~!

[Jigsaw9 6783]

So cool.

[LIDL 692]

omg ghost in the shell *Q*

[Cupcakes 55]

...For some reason I thought he was grabbing her boob. But then again, that was when I only looked at the title.

[Guest Magatsu]

this isn't the first time that something like that happened XD

[madygrain 515]

Great news, Although I miss most the point of hugging if you can not feel the one being huged. But it's great to see meaningfull advances towards giving the helpless a way to have a better existence.

Also, looking forward to see this applied to games.

[Yasupon 18]

Interesting. So it's controlled by the brain huh

[LIDL 692]

it makes the fantasy to be cuddled by a terminator or Astro boy feels realistic, in a way.