so now I'm gonna go turn on the arm can
go up
okay and back down this is the most
complex robotic arm in existence today
you can control that using thought from
the brain as humans we are tool users
and every time we invent a new tool that
changes the way we live
outside of Baltimore Maryland the
Applied Physics Laboratory a branch of
Johns Hopkins University is an unlikely
incubator for robotics that are pushing
the limits of human machine interfaces
thanks in part to a DARPA program
started in 2005 engineers have developed
the modular prosthetic limb a bionic arm
that responds to human thought creating
a new generation of robotics that can
seamlessly integrate with our bodies
this technology is still relatively new
and the effects that robotic bodies will
have on our future are already raising
serious social and ethical questions
there's a lot of interest in how this is
affecting the way we evolve where's this
all go in the future you know I think
we're just at the beginning it could be
tremendous scientists are trying to
bridge the gap but it's the patience
that will push the limits of this
technology forward we went to Baltimore
to meet with Melissa Loomis an apt from
Ohio who's visiting the lab to be
outfitted with the bionic limb for the
first time thanks to a groundbreaking
surgery called sensory reinnervation
that remapped her nerves responsible for
touch melissa is one of the first
amputees in the world to be able to feel
through a robotic prosthetic so can you
walk us through what took place on a day
of your accident it was six o'clock on a
Saturday morning on July 25th I got up
to let my dogs out heard horrible noise
went outside and the dogs had a raccoon
cornered on the top of the fence and
then they both kind of went in for the
kill and I went to grab the dogs off of
the raccoon and the raccoon grabbed on
to my forearm so I grabbed it and threw
it over the fence I had gotten bitten on
my forearm and I was just kind of
standing there bleeding so I went
straight to the hospital
I said you're you're now gonna be
referred to dr. Seth he's our hand
specialist and he said you've never seen
such a terrible infection it just kept
getting worse and worse so I went septic
and
I said I'm going to take your arm or
you're gonna die this right here is my
muscles in tendon and that was the top
of my arm 29 days and 13 surgeries later
I had my army amputated to get up in the
morning get a shower and brush your
teeth and get ready for work you know
whereas it was a 15-minute process
before my accident now it's a half an
hour process I can't just go home and
make dinner by myself without help
opening cans or lifting pots buttoning
button zipping zippers little things
that you never think about I hope to
just use my robotic arm just like I use
my regular arm and just go about my
business as a normal tool arm person
just behind me is the Applied Physics
Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University
where we're meeting the chief engineer
dr. mike mclaughlin and his team they're
working on neural prosthetics that are
controlled by the mind this is
completely revolutionising how human
beings interact with machines so this
was a program started by DARPA the
Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency and the whole purpose was really
to move prosthetics to a whole new level
the keel this is Robo Sally Robo Sally
has two of the prosthetic limbs this arm
can do basically everything you can do
with your hand
the modular prosthetic limb or MPL
interprets and converts signals from the
body's nervous system to motion when the
MPL interacts with an object signals
from over 100 sensors send information
back to the brain creating a sense of
touch these are very expensive this limb
costs hundreds of thousands of dollars
but the end of the day we really want to
get this out so people can use it in
everyday life so what's unique about
melissa is that we'll be able to
actually feed back to her sensory
information at a level that we haven't
been able to do before that is really
going to move this to your entirely new
level so you've been quoted saying that
melissa is a very special case a very
rare you explained yeah we ended up
doing a surgery
it's called targeted muscle
reinnervation is a type of surgery that
allows any amputee to use their brain to
operate the Bionic or prosthetic arm if
she wants to open her hand she just
thinks open my hand now the part that's
never been done here in the US was to
try to get someone to feel their
prosthetic hand the targeted sensory
reinnervation if you have a prosthetic
arm you can't feel you can't hold
somebody's hand and feel that touch and
so what I ended up doing was finding the
nerve that gives you feeling and I took
that basically attached it to her skin
here and here and the idea is that if
that nerve gives you feeling here her
brain will think that her fingers are
actually here
because of her surgery the quality of
sensory signals melissa receives are
better than anything tested before with
the Bionic limb we accompanied Melissa
as she used the prosthetic limb for the
first time ready
basically they just put sensors around
my arm that could read my muscle
patterns and then I would do the
movements with my imaginary arm and the
machine would recognize the muscle
patterns and then the arm would do those
motions afterwards bloom may move in a
weird way and that's okay because it's
the first time it's hearing those muscle
patterns will do elbow up and down
nice the arm learns how to understand
what you want to do as opposed to you
learning how to control the arm it's a
very fundamental difference of what
we're trying to do here so the next one
one try is the UM the hand close and
relaxed
so when you first use the modular
prosthetic limb how did it feel to
control it with your mind you know you
control your hand with your mind
naturally so to me I feel like I have a
hand and I'm just moving it naturally
just try the thumb
let's go ahead and try to do a tip grasp
very nice I mean these are really fine
movements to be able to pick up those
individual movements is pretty amazing
so this is thumb okay so the thumb is
read they put the sensors on where the
nerves are re-intubated into the skin if
you put little spots where you can feel
the fingers tank-like here my thumb
tingle each individual finger has its
own kind of little spot all right I'm
gonna buzz it let me know if it's
uncomfortable or feel it yeah when they
vibrated I would just say this is this
finger and we just went through all the
fingers is there a perception of where
the vibration is coming from you can't
localize it does just feel like it's
coming all through the phantom does it
ever feel like it's actually on your
upper arm now it's all con comes a hand
yeah it's huge that it's coming from
your phantom not sort of on your arm
ever so is greater
yeah right no one's ever seen this
before okay here we go
are you ready yep this is it yeah you
can feel yeah yeah all right ready close
your eyes oh right there yeah all right
so see if you can tell when you've
actually gotten this so just close
slowly
got it got it got it okay and open
that's awesome Melissa your case is very
special cause you're able to feel so can
you walk us through how to felt using
the prosthetic limb good cuz I mean I
wanted that's the thing I missed the
most it felt like tingling in my fingers
when I would grabbed onto the ball it
was like vibrate like sometimes I'd be
like oh wow that was like a jolt up your
finger and you were the first in the
country to have this correct it's just
incredible
yeah got it good we nailed it
we showed that you can feel and you can
move a prosthetic and I felt the orange
ball wow this is huge
I'm gonna be a Bionic Woman okay
watching the list interface with the
machine to regain capability she thought
she lost was incredible but being Bionic
raises a new question can a bionic arm
outclass a human one people frequently
draw comparisons to the Terminator and
you know our arm can curl 45 pounds no
it's not gonna pick up a bus while even
the most advanced prosthetic is no
replacement for a flesh-and-blood limb
as the technology progresses we're
likely to progress with it
neural prosthetics are still in their
infancy and limited mostly to medical
use but what happens when these
technologies become more advanced
smarter stronger will other people want
them
policymakers have already started to
bring up the issue that as humans become
more mechanical our laws will have to
evolve to reflect how we look at privacy
access and domain over our own bodies
there's certainly lots of ethics
questions going around about robot eggs
you can hack into those devices people
shown you can hack into cars and have
them do things you don't want them to do
I really believe that in the end you
know we'll be able to deal with those
kinds of things the manatee has so much
to gain here so yes I think all these
technologies will will change us but I
don't think that's a bad thing
you