bionic limb
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First woman gets bionic arm
As The Washington Post reports, 26-year old Claudia Mitchell has become the fourth person and first woman to get outfitted with a bionic arm (well, besides Lindsay Wagner), with which she's able to perform functions simply by thinking about them. The arm was designed by researchers at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago -- who are part of a larger project funded by DARPA -- and works by detecting the movement's of Mitchell's chest muscle, which has been rewired to the nerves that once served her left arm. Eventually, researchers say, the arm could even give Mitchell the sense of touch, with electrodes in the hand sending signals to her chest skin, which her brain would recognize as a sensation. This being part of a DARPA project though, we're sure they're also working on things they're not telling us, like crazy swinging grappling hook action.[Thanks, Spluch]
