World's Smallest Robotic Hand 81
BuzzSkyline writes "The world's smallest robotic hand has been built by Yen-Wen Lu and Chang-Jin "CJ" Kim at UCLA's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. The microhand can make a fist that can grasp objects smaller than a millimeter across. Check out the freaky video on the researchers' website of the microhand grabbing a blob that looks like a fish egg. The tiny hand is made of inert materials, making it ideal for handling gooey biological samples. Lu and Kim describe their microhand in a paper published October 16 in the journal Applied Physics Letters."
Oblig... (Score:1, Funny)
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Sorry but I don't think the moderators are going to grasp the meaning of this. Perhaps you could lend them a hand?
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Just perfect for the digital age.
Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
I HATE whn someone steals my jokes.
Do you perhaps live within 70 miles of me? Can I borrow a pickaxe handle?
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Yes, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Or can it knit the world's smallest sweater ? (Score:2)
More seriously, if this thing can hold microscopic needles, as a doctor and instersted in technostuff, I can't wait to see this applied to microstiching and microsurgery.
Think "Honney, I shrunk the DaVinci Robot [wikipedia.org] !" comming to an operating room near you.
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I bet it can, when coupled with Jeremy Beadles other hand.
What is it with... (Score:1, Funny)
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I Wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
Consider a system that constantly monitors internal systems (that's already in place). A problem is identified, and a swarm of robotic workers immediately moves out to fix the problem. Could this be ther first step to a sort of nanite repair system?
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Nanite workers would be better employed in breaking the broken area down to its constituent molecules and rebuilding it from scratch. Tiny hands capable of grasping tiny objects? Maybe a fastener of somekind. A kind of over-engineered velcro.
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How Many (Score:1)
I am guessing it will definitely not be used to change light bulbs
That hardly qualifies as a 'hand' (Score:1)
This hand looks more like a pair of pliers.
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I bet it doesn't say 'Danger Will Robinson either'!
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As I stated, this is just a very small set of pliers.
I think most humans will understand a 'hand' to have the following characteristics:
Has a 'palm' in which to collect items (most significantly - items smaller than the hand itself)
Has a wrist around which the palm and fingers may rotate.
Has at least two digits with differing axis of motion (apposable).
I suppose we could allow a single fork tine to be called a 'hand' if we real
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I think the real breakthrough is not size, I mean how the hell do they make a "fist" with two fingers and no palm?
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Well, no actually, unfortunately the three still images that you refer to as a 'video' are of such poor quality, that I thought there were only two 'fingers'. Upon very careful review I can make out no more than three 'fingers'.
None-the-less, I stand by my statement, this does not, to my mind, represent a hand.
It does not appear to be able to be used as a cup like the human palm can.
It does not appeat to have a single
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Or maybe relax the definition of the word 'hammer' and call it that?
Or just not use misleading words and expect people to change what the word means to fit the fact you wanna call it something? If there are words that more accurately describe something, less ambigiously, they're the one's that you should use.
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RTFA and watch the video more closely - there are four "fingers", arranged radially, with each pair in opposition. Where's the problem?
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.
Let's see how many sources cite my spelling:
Here's the first few
http://www.wordreference.com/definition/apposable/ [wordreference.com]
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/apposable/ [thefreedictionary.com]
http://www.wordwebonline.com/en/APPOSABLE/ [wordwebonline.com]
http://dictionary.laborlawtalk.com/apposable/ [laborlawtalk.com]
http://www.alphadictionary.com/wordnet/a/apposable
http://www.webster-dictionary.net/definition/Appos able/ [webster-dictionary.net]
What did we learn in class today ?
There is more than one 'correct' way to spell many words
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Four Fingers and no opposing thumb? (Score:1)
Ala Simpsons and Family Guy..Is it even as smart as homer Simpson or Peter Griffin?
Now that they have the millimeter version... (Score:2)
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Smaller hand (Score:2, Interesting)
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But I expect you are AHR (a Heinlein Reader). See post below on "Waldo"
There's plenty of room at the bottom. (Score:3, Informative)
>IINAMHS, but the world's smallest hand be used to build a yet smaller hand?
This is actually an idea described by Feynman in his lecture 'There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom,' for which he is often cited as being the first to explore the idea of nanotechnology.
The text is available here. [zyvex.com]
I'll quote a little of the applicable bit:
I appreciate the effort and all... (Score:1)
-Taylor
Waldo (Score:5, Interesting)
10 posts and no-one's mentioned "Waldo" yet?
From Wikipedia (Waldo (short story) [wikipedia.org]):
The primary application for these hands is obvious: build even smaller ones!
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And yes, for medical applications... imagine a few tiny hands attached to a tiny craft flowing in the bloodstream crushing the odd bit of cholesteral or smashing blood clots into bits manageble by the body. Not as a curative, mind you, but rather as full time, always present devices. There are so many tremendous applica
In the real world.... (Score:1)
Or is this more some theoretic research, which do's not have a goal to be used in a real working situation?
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We could use this tiny artificial hand to assemble an even tinier artificial hand
Re:In the real world.... (Score:4, Funny)
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The jokes just write themselves, don't they?
not much to do (Score:2, Funny)
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Finally! (Score:2, Funny)
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Slashdotters can finally get the level of friction they need!
But yours is OK, too, I guess.
Wow (Score:1)
Who cares? (Score:2, Funny)
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Interesting idea, but . . . (Score:1)
Deceptive video? (Score:4, Interesting)
(1) Why is the "video" not a video, but just a few stills?
(2) Why does the video not show the "hand" letting go of the object?
A cynical person might suspect
(1) The "video" was selected from a larger sequence, some frames of which might not show the hand acting so gracefully.
(2) They didnt show the hand letting go of an object because they havent figured out how to undo the effects of surface tension, which spell doom for nano-manipulators.
When they show the "hand" in full-frame unedited video, picking up and letting go of several objects, then maybe they'll have some credibility.
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2. They didn't get that part to work yet.
Moo (Score:1, Troll)
i think they have a way to go yet... (Score:1)
(Yes, it's holding a ball 65um across)
For more info read the section on Cambridge University Engineering department's photo competition page [cam.ac.uk]
What good is this? (Score:2)
Every Play Wins A Prize!
Smaller hands (Score:1, Informative)
You know what I hate about microscopic objects? (Score:1)
/I'm worried that I might have a disease that makes me deny being a hypochondriac.