“No other arm is wireless and waterproof, and it’s faster than everything else and it’s still the lightest bionic hand available…I’m so much stronger than I’ve ever been.”
I wonder if data going into the hands is also wireless when they’re attached. Seems like a rather critical set of functions to go with wireless instead of a hard connection. Maybe wireless fidelity has improved enough that concerns about things like interference aren’t as big as they used to be.
There’s one other advantage to wireless here: a bionic prosthetic is moving a lot, and that’s not great for wire harnesses or connectors. Going wireless potentially allows for greater range of movement (or at least removes the engineering challenge of making it durable long term).
That would be a more interesting line of questioning than all the viral stuff about “mind control” and whatnot.
It may just be cheaper to slap a wireless connection in there than to engineer routing cables through a fully mobile articulation AND keep the whole thing water resistant. I bet whatever the real answer there it’s fascinating.
I wish that worked better than Deus Ex collabs and morning show interviews, but given how often I’ve seen this pop up the last couple of weeks it clearly is not.
I wonder if they’re banking on wireless chips lasting longer than physical ports. Though making them wireless also means batteries and charging ports, two parts notorious for failing.
The hands have 360 rotation. It’s not impossible to make a reliable continuous rotation connector, but they aren’t as reliable and durable as you’d want in a daily use device.
Makes sense to save development costs on a funky connector. It also makes upgrades simpler later on since it’s a simpler connection.
I build and fit orthotics and prosthetics…this is mainly just a marketing gimmick. The myoelectric sensors that feed the data to the terminal device are built into the socket of the prosthetic. There’s no real reason to wear the socket without the hand, and you can’t operate the hand without the socket.
The hard connections from the end of the socket and the hand are very durable, and they typically don’t really have any issues with wear. I don’t think fidelity is a big issue because there’s not a ton of information being transferred, the myoelectric sensors haven’t really changed a bunch in the last 40 years and the amount of information being sent is minimal.
The biggest downside I foresee is that if you had different terminal devices, you’re probably going to have to pair them to the socket whenever you want to switch. When the traditional hard connection is just plug and play. That and you are just adding extra things to break in devices that are built to take a beating.
I can see a bunch of geeky engineers in the planning meeting. “Wouldn’t it be cool if it could detach and still work. Think of how she could mess with people.”
I wonder if data going into the hands is also wireless when they’re attached. Seems like a rather critical set of functions to go with wireless instead of a hard connection. Maybe wireless fidelity has improved enough that concerns about things like interference aren’t as big as they used to be.
There’s one other advantage to wireless here: a bionic prosthetic is moving a lot, and that’s not great for wire harnesses or connectors. Going wireless potentially allows for greater range of movement (or at least removes the engineering challenge of making it durable long term).
That would be a more interesting line of questioning than all the viral stuff about “mind control” and whatnot.
It may just be cheaper to slap a wireless connection in there than to engineer routing cables through a fully mobile articulation AND keep the whole thing water resistant. I bet whatever the real answer there it’s fascinating.
I wish that worked better than Deus Ex collabs and morning show interviews, but given how often I’ve seen this pop up the last couple of weeks it clearly is not.
I wonder if they’re banking on wireless chips lasting longer than physical ports. Though making them wireless also means batteries and charging ports, two parts notorious for failing.
You could always do both and fall back on external power when the battery dies. Thats how laptops often do it.
Until the pillow starts to get spicy…
One of the things that they keep saying is that this is the lightest bionic available, so it’s possible that physical ports are simply too heavy.
Batteries weigh more than ports though.
The hands have 360 rotation. It’s not impossible to make a reliable continuous rotation connector, but they aren’t as reliable and durable as you’d want in a daily use device.
Makes sense to save development costs on a funky connector. It also makes upgrades simpler later on since it’s a simpler connection.
I build and fit orthotics and prosthetics…this is mainly just a marketing gimmick. The myoelectric sensors that feed the data to the terminal device are built into the socket of the prosthetic. There’s no real reason to wear the socket without the hand, and you can’t operate the hand without the socket.
The hard connections from the end of the socket and the hand are very durable, and they typically don’t really have any issues with wear. I don’t think fidelity is a big issue because there’s not a ton of information being transferred, the myoelectric sensors haven’t really changed a bunch in the last 40 years and the amount of information being sent is minimal.
The biggest downside I foresee is that if you had different terminal devices, you’re probably going to have to pair them to the socket whenever you want to switch. When the traditional hard connection is just plug and play. That and you are just adding extra things to break in devices that are built to take a beating.
I can see a bunch of geeky engineers in the planning meeting. “Wouldn’t it be cool if it could detach and still work. Think of how she could mess with people.”
This 100% accurate! Recreating the Addams Family scenes must have been part of the commissioning process.