MichelAngelo Bionic Hand

The MichelAngelo bionic hand is a new hand prosthesis created by German medical manufacturer Otto Bock. The bionic hand was successfully implanted in a 28 year-old man born without a right hand. Take a look at this Spanish television video demonstrating the use of the MichelAngelo bionic hand.


(Otto Bock MichelAngelo bionic hand)

It took four weeks for Axel Eichinger to learn to use his new hand, which is a skeleton made from stainless steel and aluminum with a soft skin-like covering. The MichelAngelo prosthesis is designed to function in a convincing and graceful way, offering biomimicry rather than mere robotic functionality.


(Otto Bock MichelAngelo bionic hand)

SF readers and viewers were aware of these possibilities a generation ago. In Martin Caidin's 1972 novel Cyborg (made into the Six Million Dollar Man television series), Steve Austin has a bionic arm.

"When you think to pick up an object, what happened before with your original arm is repeated. The electrical impulses generated by your brain command everything... The artificial muscles.. which in this case are silastic and vitallium pulleys, then contract, twist, and tighten. You can even sense with your fingertips..."

A reader has reminded me about Mannie O'Kelly-Davis, the computer tech in the lunar prison, who has a mechanical arm with a number of different attachments. From Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

Here is a fistful of mechanical hands for you to grasp.

From MedGadget.

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