Bionic arm and hand can tie shoes, play cards, type on keyboards

Obviously, losing an arm creates significant hurdles for everyday life. From complex tasks like playing instruments, to simple things like tying a shoe or even holding a cup of coffee while trying to open a door, the use of one hand makes day-to-day tasks a challenge. If we lived in the world of Skynet and sentient robotic limbs, people who suffered a grievous limb injury could get right back in the game (not counting the robot war against all humankind of course). Fortunately, it turns out we do live in a world where a robotic arm is attainable, but we thankfully don’t have to be enslaved by machine overlords.

53-year-old Nigel Ackland was involved in an accident six years ago that resulted in the loss of his arm. In November of last year, he was given the carbon fiber arm and the Bebionic 3 myoelectric hand. Now, using the pair, he can perform some complex actions. The video highlights two actions that, though they are merely afterthoughts to people that have the use of two hands and all of their digits, actually require a significant amount of dexterity. These everyday tasks are tying a shoe and dealing a deck of cards.

Ackland can control the robotic arm via movements from his upper arm. The Bebionic 3 hand’s response to muscle twitches is so precise, that not only can a wearer tie shoelaces and deal cards, but can actually type on a keyboard, and perform the small, exact actions that dressing yourself requires.

Though the Bebionic 3 is precise, it still isn’t a real arm, and thus doesn’t offer the maneuverability and dexterity your own limb does. To alleviate this issue, the arm’s wrist can spin around and face the other direction, making it much easier to maneuver and grab objects — in theory, sometimes even easier than a person’s own arm and wrist.

Now, we don’t quite know if this bionic arm makes Ackland a cyborg like you might initially think, as the robotic bits in a cyborg need to provide a person with superhuman powers. However, the arm certainly provides Ackland with the ability to perform two-handed tasks once again, and it doesn’t seem to be too much of a hassle at that.

For more information on the hand, head on over to the product website, and be sure to watch more videos of the thing in action, as it’s quite impressive.