The Bionic Veterans: A Revolutionary Advancement

Bionic veterans will become a fact of life in the future as decades of revolutionary advancements in bio-medical engineering are fine tuned. There are at least two different research efforts which have gone as far as developing bionic hands with a sense of touch. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has encouraged and funded research and development in the United States (http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2007/070426.asp ), and a team of international scientists from Ireland, Italy, Iceland, Denmark, and Israel have developed a hand with man-machine interface that allows a sense of touch (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3803524,00.html ).

The author remembers the television show the "Six Million Dollar Man" as a first, semi-realistic, introduction to the concept of bionics. It was great fun but viewed as pretty strictly science fiction. Now it is a pressing social and ethical issue to develop and perfect bionic prosthesis for returning veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The "Six Million Dollar Man" seemed to feel perfectly comfortable with his prosthetics and the humanitarian goal of bio-engineering research today is to offer as close to that level of comfort and utility as possible.

There are more than twice the numbers of amputees returning from the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan than have come home from other wars. The Department of Defense tells us that part of the explanation for this increased number of amputees is the improved battlefield treatment and shorter times to high quality critical care than in past wars. This, they explain, turns catastrophic wounds that would have been fatal in past wars into loss of limb wounds that spares the soldier's life.

Bionic veterans like the "Six Million Dollar Man" are a bit beyond what the technology will support at the moment but huge strides have been taken on perfecting prosthesis. Some of the greatest strides have been made in the development of the sensation of touch. The teams of researchers in the United States have developed a system based on non-invasive sensors (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/bionics/fischman-text ), while the European team has developed a system based on tiny wires being inserted into the stump and interfaced with the remaining nerves (The Smart Hand http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3803524,00.html).

Both systems allow the wearer to perceive touch. It remains to be seen which prosthetic will be most comfortable, safe and useful. In a perfect world the prosthetic devices would be impossible to tell apart from strictly biological limbs. They would look and function much like the limbs of "The Six Million Dollar Man" or the stunningly realistic prosthetic Luke Skywalker of "Star Wars" wears after his famous encounter with a light saber when his arm is severed.

References: Machine Design, Vol. 82.Number 15 September 9, 2010, pg.50, "Engineering a Sense of Touch"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Six_Million_Dollar_Man

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3803524,00.html

http://www.neurotechreports.com/pages/darpaprosthetics.html

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/bionics/fischman-text