From: cwatters@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Coyt D Watters)
Subject: ABC special
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 1991 19:43:15 GMT
Organization: The Ohio State University



There was a special "Worlds of Discovery" on ABC last night, which had some 
items of interest for VR/Cyberpunk.

First was the same stuff on the myleoelectric (SP?) arm, and how it is being 
used with toddlers at an early age.  For those who are unfamiliar with this
device, it is a prostheic arm with an electric grip.  It is more esthetic
than the "hook."

There was a long segment about electrode implants being used experimentally
to assist paraplegics in walking.  At this point, the technology is crude, but
shows promise.  The patients have up to 50 electrodes implanted, and a computer
system triggers the electrodes to stimulate the muscles.  The video showed
two walkers.

Another was an internal implant which allowed a man, by using specific 
movements, to control one arm and hand.

A cochlear implant case was shown, where an electronic package was able to 
restore hearing to a patient. 

The VR segment, which was rather short, was NASA AMES, showing an example
of "virtual remote presence."  Using Eyephones and a DataGlove, the 
human connected to a robot at JPL.  What is interesting is that the user
did not see the actual robot arm (via telepresence), but viewed a 3d
computer representation of the robot arm and the environment.  The system
also had simple voice recognition.  Really neat, seeing the guy grasping at
air, and the robot arm closing on a circuit board.  The video was a little
rough.

Other topics included a short segment on the research into getting nerve
cells to grow into and link with artificial neurons.  Not a bad special, 
for a network time-filler.


-- 
Coyt D. Watters                              cwatters@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Oh I like MUMPS, everything's a string.  Oh I like MUMPS, math's done wrong.
Oh I like MUMPS, DATA as CODE as DATA as CODE as... is a lot of fun.
Oh I like MUMPS, passing an indirect variable reference as a parameter is ok.