Augmented Design

FDA Approves First Prosthesis Controlled by Muscle Electrical Signals

Dean Kamen’s DEKA Arm is an electronic prosthetic that mimics natural arm and hand movement with an amazing level of finesse. It’s controlled by electrical signals from the wearer’s muscles. This week, the DEKA Arm became the first muscle-controlled prostheticapproved by the FDA for sale to the general public.

In the FDA study, 90% of test subjects were able to quickly adapt to using the DEKA Arm for tasks that were impossible with traditional arm prosthetics, like brushing hair and using keys and zippers.

This is a cyborg we can all support.

need this

need the thing

NFC-Chip Hand Modification

Zoe Quinn (aka Tumblr ohdeargodbees) has an inserted an NFC chip for experimentation with data transfer with devices. Already she has demonstrated contactless phone-unlocking and sharing software codes, but there is more to explore with - certainly food for thought on the subject of our relationships with tech and digital identification.

Here are two videos where Zoe discusses and demonstrates how this works - the first video is very brief, but the second video shows the installation procedure (which isn’t for the squemish):

And here, in a Tumblr post, Zoe gives some answers as to why she has done this:

Q: What is in your hand, exactly?

I have an NTAG216 in it. Its really, really new. Like you can’t get one yet by just trying to straight up order them. It’s got 888 bytes of read/write data and I can reprogram it from my phone whenever I want.

Q. What can you do with it?

I’m not sure what all the possibilities are. I can tell you that I’m planning to make a game that integrates it, and I can lock and unlock my phone with it super easy as well as transmit data to other compatible NFC devices like Android phones. Thus, if you see me and have one, high five me with it because I have a Steam key stored on there that will be transmitted to your device. 

I’m also getting an arduino controller that plays with it in the mail any day now. But basically, my answer is “I’m exploring that as we speak and will post any cool shit I come up with”.

Q. How do you connect to it?

I just hold my phone over where it is in my hand and I get access.

Q. What about the NSA/hackers/chemtrails?

It only has what I put on it, like an external hard drive. The NSA can’t track me with it. Also if someone tried to hack my hand, considering it’s a 10cm read/write range, they’d also be well within punching range too and it’d be really obvious what they were doing. Beyond that, I could just rewrite the fuckin thing if I wanted to.

Q. How easy is it to remove?

I’d just have to pop it out with a scalpel and try to not barf and pass out again.

Q. What if NFC becomes obsolete?

So fucking what it’s an experiment. I am stupidly optimistic about exploring biohacking and if obsolescence happens, the shit I learn in the interim is already worth having to stab myself with a scalpel later if I really really want to get rid of it (I probably won’t)

Q. Will your magnet affect it?

Nope! NFC chips don’t work that way. I mention it in the video a little.

Q. I know you have a magnet but I’m still worried about you and MRIs.

Stilllll not an issue. 

Q. Should I do this to myself the same way you did?

NO. I HAVE TRAINED UNDER LICENSED PIERCING PROFESSIONALS AND TOOK A HUGE RISK IN DOING WHAT I DID DON’T BE CRAZY. I don’t condone anything I did in this video nor do I suggest it, it was pretty reckless to be honest and you should absolutely not do this to yourself. I knew the risks and did it anyway. I am a dumb, dumb person.