That day is a long long way off. If you look at the literature we're not even close. The vast majority of upper limb amputees today either don't tend to wear a limb or if they do they tend to be cosmetic rather than functional ones. Currently the most functional upper limbs on the market today tend to be manual types which require you to move your shoulders to open or close but in general most tasks can be better performed using their other hand if they have one.
Even if the mechanical technology was anywhere close which it isn't. There's still socket problems, skin problems, phantom limb the list goes on. No one wants to cut there limb off to find their skin is hypersensitive and can't tolerate any contact with their prosthesis. There are also significant economical barriers in developing such high tech stuff for such a small proportion of the population.
This is awesome that Konami has done this for James but it does unfortunately have the side effect of making people think if something like that happens to them they will get the same treatment.
A lot of the technology we're actually using in clinics today hasn't actually changed in a long long while and isn't really likely to in the near future. Microprocessor technology has been around for ages but still isn't used that often. A microprocessor leg can cost up to to 40k and an arm can be double that. If you're in the UK the NHS certainly won't cover it.
Even then microprocessor limbs aren't always suitable and certainly have their own myriad of problems.
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That day is a long long way off. If you look at the literature we're not even close. The vast majority of upper limb amputees today either don't tend to wear a limb or if they do they tend to be cosmetic rather than functional ones. Currently the most functional upper limbs on the market today tend to be manual types which require you to move your shoulders to open or close but in general most tasks can be better performed using their other hand if they have one.
Even if the mechanical technology was anywhere close which it isn't. There's still socket problems, skin problems, phantom limb the list goes on. No one wants to cut there limb off to find their skin is hypersensitive and can't tolerate any contact with their prosthesis. There are also significant economical barriers in developing such high tech stuff for such a small proportion of the population.
This is awesome that Konami has done this for James but it does unfortunately have the side effect of making people think if something like that happens to them they will get the same treatment.
A lot of the technology we're actually using in clinics today hasn't actually changed in a long long while and isn't really likely to in the near future. Microprocessor technology has been around for ages but still isn't used that often. A microprocessor leg can cost up to to 40k and an arm can be double that. If you're in the UK the NHS certainly won't cover it.
Even then microprocessor limbs aren't always suitable and certainly have their own myriad of problems.
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