Luke Skywalker's prosthetic hand could become a reality -- if scientists can get artificial limbs to communicate sensory information to the brain.
A new method of feeling without touching may allow people with paralyzed or lost limbs to interact with the world using sophisticated prosthetic devices that send sensations directly to the brain.
The method, tested only in monkeys so far, is "a major milestone" for neural prosthetics, according to study researcher Miguel Nicolelis, a physician and neurobiologist at Duke University Medical Center. Neural prosthetics are robotic limbs or exoskeleton-like devices controlled only by nerve signals. Nicolelis and other researchers plan to test these devices in humans within the next one to three years.
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