Video: Who should be liable for robot misbehavior?[1]
Plenty of busy people have joked about needing an extra set of hands to juggle all their tasks, and now it just might be possible. Mind-controlled prosthetic limbs have already been developed for amputees, but the next level of bionics enhances healthy bodies and provides super-human abilities. Researchers at Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International in Japan demonstrated how healthy people can use an extra robotic arm to multitask.
In an article published in Science Robotics[2], the researchers describe a study where healthy participants used their minds to control a robotic arm[3] while they also used their human arms to do something else.
Read also: 11 delivery robots that will soon carry food and packages[4]
This experiment blurs the lines between man and machine and provides a preview of the ways that robotic capabilities can be enhance humans in the real world. Cyborgs already exist today -- such as the colorblind man who implanted an antenna into his brain[5] so he could perceive colors and the biohackers who embed RFID or NFC chips[6] into their hands so they can unlock doors, make payments, or store their personal data. Now, we can add extra limbs to the list of weird but ingenious ways to integrate technology with biology.
In the experiment, participants wore an electrode cap and sat in a chair with a human-like robotic arm attached to it. The intention of the user was decoded from brain signals and the fake hand was programmed to grasp a bottle.
The robotic arm was placed at shoulder-height and dressed in normal clothes because previous studies