This news comes to us via the good people at Extremetech.com. They are reporting on the new research from the Johns Hopkins university and DARPA.

What it's all about is connecting artifical sensors built into artificial fingers of artificial arms to the very real neurons. The trick is to connect the exact neurons that used to transmit information from real (sadly lost) limbs to the brain of the patients in this trial.

According to the report, the patients were able to successfully recognise which finger was being stimulated in nearly a 100% of the tests. And best of all, no major re-learning was required. The patients felt the connection to their new artificial limbs almost immediately.

You can read more details about the technology at the Extremetech.com website. We would just like to comment on how exciting and far reaching this particular piece of news is.

This is not just about restoring lost functionality any more. Well, it is at first, but only at first.

What we are looking at is a (near) future in which people with artificial limbs have exactly the same level of fine control that only nature could provide until recently. But the big difference will be that their limbs are orders of magnitude stronger, resistant to harsh external stimuli and generally capable. And integrated into the (wearer's, owner's, operator's?) central nervous system.

This definitely provides hope to millions of people around the world who struggle with everyday tasks that the majority of us hardly thinks about. At the same time, the technology can be seriously abused. Ethical questions haven't even been seriously posed yet, let alone answered. Exciting times ahead.