I wonder if data going into the hands is also wireless when they’re attached. Seems like a rather critical set of functions to go with wireless instead of a hard connection. Maybe wireless fidelity has improved enough that concerns about things like interference aren’t as big as they used to be.
There’s one other advantage to wireless here: a bionic prosthetic is moving a lot, and that’s not great for wire harnesses or connectors. Going wireless potentially allows for greater range of movement (or at least removes the engineering challenge of making it durable long term).
That would be a more interesting line of questioning than all the viral stuff about “mind control” and whatnot.
It may just be cheaper to slap a wireless connection in there than to engineer routing cables through a fully mobile articulation AND keep the whole thing water resistant. I bet whatever the real answer there it’s fascinating.
I wish that worked better than Deus Ex collabs and morning show interviews, but given how often I’ve seen this pop up the last couple of weeks it clearly is not.
Deus Ex is a horror universe. Example:
You work as produce loader. One day, your coworker comes in with a fancy new set of robot arms. He can lift three times as much as you can and work twice as fast. Your hours start getting cut back, boss doesn’t need you anymore. You lose your job. You apply for a new one, but it’s the same story everywhere: companies want cyborgs. So you spend the last of your savings on a set of bionic arms. They work great, and you land a new job. It’s enough to pay for the anti rejection meds and your living expenses. Two years later, a new model comes out. Efficiency improves even more. Your services aren’t needed anymore, and you can’t afford an upgrade.
You’re homeless now, and you can’t afford the rejection meds. So you sit on the side of the street with a cardboard sign and an empty hat, waiting for your arms to rot off your body as your immune tears the connection apart.
Drag wouldn’t buy prosthetics from a company that associates themselves with that image.
I wonder if they’re banking on wireless chips lasting longer than physical ports. Though making them wireless also means batteries and charging ports, two parts notorious for failing.
You could always do both and fall back on external power when the battery dies. Thats how laptops often do it.
One of the things that they keep saying is that this is the lightest bionic available, so it’s possible that physical ports are simply too heavy.
I build and fit orthotics and prosthetics…this is mainly just a marketing gimmick. The myoelectric sensors that feed the data to the terminal device are built into the socket of the prosthetic. There’s no real reason to wear the socket without the hand, and you can’t operate the hand without the socket.
The hard connections from the end of the socket and the hand are very durable, and they typically don’t really have any issues with wear. I don’t think fidelity is a big issue because there’s not a ton of information being transferred, the myoelectric sensors haven’t really changed a bunch in the last 40 years and the amount of information being sent is minimal.
The biggest downside I foresee is that if you had different terminal devices, you’re probably going to have to pair them to the socket whenever you want to switch. When the traditional hard connection is just plug and play. That and you are just adding extra things to break in devices that are built to take a beating.
I can see a bunch of geeky engineers in the planning meeting. “Wouldn’t it be cool if it could detach and still work. Think of how she could mess with people.”
I wounded if working people will be able to afford this… Given the amount of amputee veterans who lost limbs and veteran suicide rate…me thinks not… But sure it seems pretty nifty…just swell
It’s also a massive risk when even the advanced ones have a high rejection rate of around 44% that’s never talked about, and don’t have nearly as much fine control as the media makes them out to be on top of being uncomfortably heavy for some people. While some do like them, a lot wind up preferring simpler ones or none at all.
Those articles hit close to home as someone hard of hearing. So much of disability activism is trying to get able people to respect what is comfortable for us to do rather than what is comfortable for able bystanders to see us do.
Like assistive devices are awesome, but they exist for the people they are used by. We consistently want comfortable independent function without being othered for it. Some will prefer subtle devices, others will ask for a fully controllable rgb option on devices that could be hidden easily.
Great, now my hands can get hacked.
I bet if we all try we can remember the name Tilley Lockey because it’s a pretty badass name and arguably cooler than bionic girl
