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How do our brains adapt to control an extra body part?

cam.ac.uk

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Re: How do our brains adapt to control an extra body part?

#71

Post by benvan »

smokel wrote: post #53

I once saw a documentary on a haptic compass, built from some rumble packs. It allowed people to improve their way-finding skills, and if I recall correctly, people accustomed to the idea of having this extra sense after about a week or so. I can’t easily find the original research (somewhere in the 1990s), but several hackers and artists have rebuilt or rediscovered the idea. See for example https://blinry.org/compa…

This was a particular passion project of mine a while back. I tried building a haptic compass that could be worn on the wrist and discovered that that the actual haptics mattered a lot. Vibration didn't work at all for me (I couldn't internalise the feeling - however much the intensity modulated it just felt like buzzing) but ended up using a kind of trick of directional "tick" lines to represent proximity to North - which felt almost instantly familiar.

I never finished the project, but love this idea!

https://youtu.be/7UaAwTuahWo?si=YFBq1trurHq0P7i-

Re: How do our brains adapt to control an extra body part?

#73

Post by aszantu »

tstrimple wrote: post #28
from-nibly wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like the overpopularization of the gluten free diet. It serves gluten intolerant people a lot.

Rolled our eyes at fad diets like gluten free (while knowing celiacs is a real thing) only for my wife to develop both lactose and gluten intolerance at 40. And I thought cutting HFCS was difficult. I’m glad that gluten free picked up in popularity now, but it’s still very difficult to shop at conventional grocery stores. Allergens listed on menus has been amazing.

gluten itself doesn't seem to be the problem for many ppl, but it opens the pores in the gut lining and lets other allergens through. There's another one glutinin on which there isn't much research, seems to have same effect.

Re: How do our brains adapt to control an extra body part?

#74

Post by 2wrist »

Taniwha wrote: post #29

I broke my Achilles tendon - had to have a FULL reconstruction - they took a tendon that used to help waggle my big toe (the muscle is in my leg) wrapped around my heel and back up my leg and rebuilt my achilles around that - now I have a muscle that used to wiggle my toe than moves my entire foot. How hard was it to relearn? at first I'd try to move my toe and something else would move, it felt weird - but doctor's…

Wow, that sounds a tough thing to go through. Hope you are going in the right direction. I had a partial rupture of my achilles 12 years ago and it is still different and still feels like something I need to work around. But I have adapted.

Re: How do our brains adapt to control an extra body part?

#75

Post by Terr_ »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #9

There's this thing called the "curb-cut effect," where you make a change in order to accommodate people with a specific disability, and it turns out that the change is way more broadly useful than you anticipated. It's named after the ramps at intersections that were mandated by the ADA for folks in wheelchairs, but they turned out to be really good ideas in general and helped folks with strollers, on bicycles, and m…

Speaking of productionalizing and economies of scale... I sometimes imagine an especially enlightened* medieval king would subsidize certain operations for peasants, just to improve the state of the art for whenever he himself might need it.

* But presumably not so enlightened as to transition the structure of government.

Re: How do our brains adapt to control an extra body part?

#76

Post by Kye »

ndriscoll wrote: post #21
clipsy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but these make the cut much worse for anything with wheels. Worse than the original curbs? Not in my experience.

I found that whatever material they used in San Francisco for those bumpy curb ramps was incredibly slippery when it rained. Wouldn't surprise me if someone ends up disabled because of them at some point.

All the panels I've encountered in Georgia have had plenty of grip when wet. I wonder what the difference is. Maybe it's because we get more rain and less slippery oil and goop is able to accumulate. I've heard that's part of why drivers in southern California have so much trouble with rain.

Re: How do our brains adapt to control an extra body part?

#77

Post by Taniwha »

2wrist wrote: post #74
Taniwha wrote: post #29

I broke my Achilles tendon - had to have a FULL reconstruction - they took a tendon that used to help waggle my big toe (the muscle is in my leg) wrapped around my heel and back up my leg and rebuilt my achilles around that - now I have a muscle that used to wiggle my toe than moves my entire foot. How hard was it to relearn? at first I'd try to move my toe and something else would move, it felt weird - but doctor's…

Wow, that sounds a tough thing to go through. Hope you are going in the right direction. I had a partial rupture of my achilles 12 years ago and it is still different and still feels like something I need to work around. But I have adapted.

Mostly, I've had issues with scar tissue - this is an operation where you want scar tissue forming in the right places, but not the wrong ones, so I've had a couple of minor ops which seems to have fixed it - mostly now it feels tight (they put it in too tight on purpose, a bunch of physio is stretching it to the right length, starts with an adjustable moon boot, a bit of a medieval torture device that slowly stretches it) - if you stretch too far they can't undo it without opening it up

I can hike reasonable distances (multiple kilometres), running not so much a thing - I feel incredibly lucky I'm doing as well as I am

I'm very aware that if I break it again I'm probably screwed (and all I originally did was step in a hole, nothing strenuous) so I'm generally careful

Re: How do our brains adapt to control an extra body part?

#78

Post by slazaro »

benvan wrote: post #71
smokel wrote: post #53

I once saw a documentary on a haptic compass, built from some rumble packs. It allowed people to improve their way-finding skills, and if I recall correctly, people accustomed to the idea of having this extra sense after about a week or so. I can’t easily find the original research (somewhere in the 1990s), but several hackers and artists have rebuilt or rediscovered the idea. See for example https://blinry.org/compa…

This was a particular passion project of mine a while back. I tried building a haptic compass that could be worn on the wrist and discovered that that the actual haptics mattered a lot. Vibration didn't work at all for me (I couldn't internalise the feeling - however much the intensity modulated it just felt like buzzing) but ended up using a kind of trick of directional "tick" lines to represent proximity to North -…

That's so cool! I can imagine it kind of feels like when you have a wheel that you can turn with your fingers and it kind of "snaps" into place at regular intervals, like your body rotation is snapping into a cardinal direction.

Have you thought about trying something similar using Android? Taking the compass and doing small short vibration blips, you can also pair them with sound and light for testing or reinforcing it. Although I can imagine that the compass is not very accurate and the vibration control on Android is probably all over the place in terms of consistency between devices. But being able to have it as something compact that you probably already carry around could make it real-life useful.

I can imagine it being an assistance when it's in your pocket and it passively keeps feeding you the blips, you could use the proximity detection to make it only do that when in your pocket, for instance.

Re: How do our brains adapt to control an extra body part?

#80

Post by sapphire_tomb »

saagarjha wrote: post #66
sapphire_tomb wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dani, whom the article mentions, has also worked on prosthetic arm replacements which are indeed modelled on tentacles. I don't have a link to hand but I'm sure some use of your favourite search engine would show this for you.

I am unsure I want to search for images of tentacle arm replacements.

Coward. https://www.daniclodedesign.com/thevine20
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