The $18,000 dollar man
There are some major advances taking place in bionics these days (in part due to the Iraq war). Most recently, there’s the i-Limb (I hope Apple doesn’t sue), featured in this cnet article slideshow. The i-Limb costs about $18,000 dollars and is much more human-like than other prosthetic hands. For one it has 5 fingers, each with their own motor. It also features some very impressive artificial skin.
On page 6 of the article, the CEO of Touch Bionics (makers of the i-Limb) places their customers into two categories: those who want their prosthetic hand to look as normal as possible and those who want it to look like it came out of the movie Terminator. Perhaps that’s why in addition to highlighting the hand’s optional artificial skin, Touch Bionic’s website has a video of someone using the i-Limb to load a shotgun.
The future is on its way!