Dr. Todd A. Kuiken: Bionic Sensation
From: BusinessWeek - 01/09/2006
By: Michael Arndt

Bionic humans such as Colonel Steve Austin on the TV show "The Six Million
Dollar Man" might become a reality one day, says Dr. Todd A. Kuiken, a
department director at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and an
associate professor at Northwestern University. Kuiken has developed the
first brain-powered arm, which is being used by Jesse Sullivan, a former
utility worker who lost his limbs in 2001 when he accidentally touched a
high-voltage line. Collaborating with Allen Taflove, a Northwestern professor
of electrical and computer engineering, Kuiken has found a way to make the
stop-and-go signals of the body's muscle system stronger so that computers
can interpret them. The computerized arm is wired to nerve stumps in
Sullivan's chest, and it is controlled by electrochemical impulses. Today,
Sullivan can dress and feed himself, shave, vacuum, work in a garden, toss a
ball, and even determine whether the object picked up is hard or soft, hot or
cold. Despite such advances, Kuiken says bionic humans are likely decades
away. Robotic limbs will make life easier for people, including soldiers, who
lose arms and legs, considering the mechanical device, with straps and cable,
that most at-the-shoulder amputees receive has been used since the Civil War.
Still, Kuiken says advanced robotic limbs would not compare to the human body. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_02/b3966025.htm

Links:
'Bionic' Arm Brings Back Sense of Touch
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0506230208jun23,1,7950510.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Prosthetic arm boasts sense of touch
http://www.worldhealth.net/p/prosthetic-arm-boasts-sense-of-touch-2005-06-23.html

Introducing Jesse Sullivan, the World's First "Bionic Man"
http://www.ric.org/bionic/index.php

Todd A. Kuiken, MD, PhD
http://www.ric.org/search/kuiken.php

Brain waves drive man's bionic arm
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/09/25/bionic.arm/index.html

`Bionic' arm brings back sense of touch
http://www.smpp.northwestern.edu/ChicagoTribuneBionicArmarticle.pdf

The Body Electric: Recent Developments in Bionic Technology - Upper Extremities
http://www.amputee-coalition.org/inmotion/may_jun_04/body_electric.html

A Toast to the Bionic Man
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/medicine/6123dc8a25076010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/technology/generaltechnology/c83d87fd92c26010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

Neuro-Controlled Bionic Arm
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/bown2005/personalhealth/19e6ee82ea447010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html