Yoky Matsuoka, the director of the Neurobotics Laboratory at the University of Washington, and one of the honorees in our most recent class of the Brilliant Ten, took some time to chat with Talking Robots about her work in particular, and the future of robotics in general. One of Matsuoka's many projects involves building an anatomically-correct mechanical hand—see the video above of the finger in action—and she also has big ideas about brain-machine interfaces, tele-manipulation and robots in the home.
—
It's also interesting to hear her recount the responses of patients who could benefit from the advanced prosthetics and other devices she's developing, and listen to her thoughts on how these technologies should be used to help people, and not necessarily enhance the abilities of otherwise healthy individuals.
Via Robots.net
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
Share links with friends, comment on stories and more
In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.
Check out the best of what's new here.
video's "no longer available" :(
..and now it's back. cool! it's neat to see all the little tendons and how they work. It's amazing that each of our fingers has such a complex control system, probably even more robust than the robotic one.