It's bringing science fiction to life. For years, bionics has captured our imaginations, and now it's inspiring a whole new generation of scientists.
Scientists in Portugal are close to perfecting a bionic eye, and here in the United States, doctors at Mass General Hospital say hope for the paralyzed could one day come from a new device.
"Looking very closely, there's about a hundred little electrodes, each of them about a millimeter long," explained Dr. Leigh Hochberg.
Those electrodes transmit signals from the user's brain and commands computers to turn on the TV, move wheelchairs, even send email.
And surgeons are constructing better body parts, too, with newer replaceable body parts.
At MIT, an artificial foot with special microprocessors that respond ot the body's commands.
Silent motors function in place of the missing ankle and lower leg.
And Claudia Mitchell has what many call a bionic arm, controlled entirely by thought.
The arm works by detecting movements of a chest muscle that has been connected to the remains of nerves that once went to her real arm.
And get this, in London, a researcher had a chip implanted into his nervous system which enabled him to connect to the internet.
(Copyright (c) 2007 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
