When over the past 5 years we have reported on the DARPA robotic arm (if you feel like it, the old site is available), we were talking about advanced prototypes: today we can talk, with satisfaction, about clinical tests: it is the future.
No later than two weeks ago, American health bodies approved the protocol that will allow volunteers to obtain the implant of a bionic arm: on the front line, once again, soldiers wounded in war. They will be the ones to experience the benefits of this new technology, and to help doctors and technicians correct its inevitable defects.
Within 4 years we could find ourselves in a world that allows massive implants of bionic prostheses on the population: these are devices costing years of research and more than 100 million euros, is the best you can find today in the field of prosthetic design, robotics, and body-machine interfaces.
It is an event that will mark a gigantic leap in medicine and also in people's thinking, who will get closer to the idea of a man capable of 'enhancing' his life with technology.
Ci let's wait for that finally identify a problem and transform it into a technological solution: it will not be an easy job to do, for the first time in the world robotics and medicine will be so close in the analysis of the results. The step forward, however, is truly remarkable: The Food and Drug Administration has much longer timeframes (about 10 years), and the 4-year forecast is already a great thing, if we take into account that clinical trials are not games but they serve to ensure patients are safe about what they take (in this case what they implant).
Having resolved the doubts about the degradation of microchips, the maintenance to be carried out and the risks of rejection, we will finally cut this ribbon: it will be the beginning of a different world.
