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Although the system still feels far from perfect: requiring a VHS-sized control box, a lack of full simulation of natural touch and movement; it's definitely an

Although the system still feels far from perfect: requiring a VHS-sized control box, a lack of full simulation of natural touch and movement; it's definitely an amazing achievement. I wonder how feasible production of these would be in the future and how costly they would be. It seems like specialized tech that could run a patient thousands of dollars.

pharke 6y ago
I'm guessing that the connector and control box are pretty much hand wired with some printed boards. The hardware cost should be more like $50 if factory made. It's great to see a prototype like this working but we're technologically capable of so much more.
- mhh__ 6y ago
  That depends on how much signal processing and interfacing needs to be done. If it needs some serious heavy lifting then $50 might not even cover the FPGA.
  - pharke 6y ago
    Why use an FPGA in mass production when an IC would be faster and cheaper?
    - mhh__ 6y ago
      How many of these would you sell? I would imagine an ASIC manufacturer isn't going to pick up the phone for less than 10k units. You can actually buy an FPGA today, too. The added time spent getting expensive engineers and doctors to integrate and test the ASIC probably wouldn't be worth it in low volumes. On top of that if you have complicated signal aquisition circuitry the ADCs alone might be another $100.
      - pharke 6y ago
        If you could perfect a system that restores motion and/or feeling to paralyzed parts of the human body you could sell millions of units[0] [0] https://www.christopherreeve.org/living-with-paralysis/stats-about-paralysis https://www.christopherreeve.org/living-with-paralysis/stats...
pmoriarty 6y ago
It's not the size of a VHS machine, but only the size of a VHS tape, which is relatively small... about the size of a couple of large smartphones stacked on each other, or a paperback book.
- WilTimSon 6y ago
  Yeah, but a VHS tape is still not something people with disabilities can carry around conveniently, unless they fashion some straps for it. It'd still be nice to see how it gets progressively smaller as the tech is refined.

pharke 6y ago

I'm guessing that the connector and control box are pretty much hand wired with some printed boards. The hardware cost should be more like $50 if factory made. It's great to see a prototype like this working but we're technologically capable of so much more.

mhh__ 6y ago
That depends on how much signal processing and interfacing needs to be done. If it needs some serious heavy lifting then $50 might not even cover the FPGA.
- pharke 6y ago
  Why use an FPGA in mass production when an IC would be faster and cheaper?
  - mhh__ 6y ago
    How many of these would you sell? I would imagine an ASIC manufacturer isn't going to pick up the phone for less than 10k units. You can actually buy an FPGA today, too. The added time spent getting expensive engineers and doctors to integrate and test the ASIC probably wouldn't be worth it in low volumes. On top of that if you have complicated signal aquisition circuitry the ADCs alone might be another $100.
    - pharke 6y ago
      If you could perfect a system that restores motion and/or feeling to paralyzed parts of the human body you could sell millions of units[0] [0] https://www.christopherreeve.org/living-with-paralysis/stats-about-paralysis https://www.christopherreeve.org/living-with-paralysis/stats...

pmoriarty 6y ago

It's not the size of a VHS machine, but only the size of a VHS tape, which is relatively small... about the size of a couple of large smartphones stacked on each other, or a paperback book.

WilTimSon 6y ago
Yeah, but a VHS tape is still not something people with disabilities can carry around conveniently, unless they fashion some straps for it. It'd still be nice to see how it gets progressively smaller as the tech is refined.