No, this isn’t an idea formed within the deepest recesses of a 4chan user’s mind; the concept of a prosthetic tentacle intended to supplement the user’s real limbs was actually conjured up by student designer Kaylene Kau from Taipei, who created an artificial limb not for amputees, but rather to attach to a limb in order to provide an extra function – that function seemingly being “making the user look a bit like a futuristic octopus.”
Speaking of the prosthetic, which was created for a class project in which students were asked to “push the boundaries of current upper-limb prosthetic design,” Kau said: “Through extensive research I found that the prosthetic functioned as an assistant to the dominant functioning hand. The prosthetic needed to be both flexible and adjustable in order to accommodate a variety of different grips.”
The limb can curls and uncurls using a motor located inside of it, while its controls are placed on its shell with there being no direct link to the user’s nervous system, as has been seen in more advanced prosthetic limbs, such as DARPA’s recent creation that allowed a paralyzed man to “feel” using an artificial limb.
The limb, which was created by Kau back in 2012, won’t exactly be utilized by health professionals at any point in the near future, but with advancements in artificial limb technology constantly being made, it certainly provides a unique look at how prosthetics could look outside of their traditional designs.
With designers and researchers mostly focusing upon artificial limbs that replicate the shape and motions of a human hand, some have pointed out that in the future prosthetics could actually stand to improve upon that design, offering a wide variety of different designs outside of the current attempts to closely replicate the human anatomy.
