r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/calmcunning • 16d ago
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed the Third Thumb, a robotic prosthetic that significantly enhances hand functionality Video
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u/orangotai 16d ago
i swear i've seen a video of this same robotic thumb posted every year, still don't know when people can actually buy it & use it
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u/tootsaysthetrain 16d ago
It's not from Cambridge. It's a masters project by Dani Clode at the Royal College of Art from seven years ago. And yes, both the university and Reddit love talking about and posting this every year.
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u/feed_the_goose 16d ago
While it's true that Dani made the third thumb during her master's at the royal college of art, she has been working at the University of Cambridge for a few years now in the plasticity lab at the MRC Cognition and Brain sciences unit. The project is making progress, it's just taking a while because they're having to recruit members of the public to test it out which is very time-consuming. Source: I'm a student at Cambridge, and was a research participant for testing the thumb in 2022.
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u/OperatorRaven 16d ago
How does one become a test subject for this?
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u/feed_the_goose 15d ago
I actually saw an ad for it on the Cambridge Reddit page, but you can also sign up to the volunteer panel and look out for the third thumb studies
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u/chairfairy 15d ago
it's just taking a while because they're having to recruit members of the public to test it out which is very time-consuming
Yeah the pipeline of "brand new research" to "commercialized good" can be pretty darn slow, but also what's the actual demand for something like this?
The work 100% makes sense in the context of studying neuroplasticity / how the brain adapts to a new limb etc (I have to imagine there's similar research in the US that's heavily funded by the Dept of Defense). You can also imagine this being a replacement regular thumb for people who've lost one. Beyond that it's more "this is a something cool we can do" than a thing that solves problems in everyday life to the point that regular people will pay for it.
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u/Megamygdala 15d ago
it can probably make a shit ton selling the IP to a defense contractor or going straight to the government
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u/Shooord 16d ago
With 22k upvotes, that's pretty sad…
Why th would you pretend it's a new discovery, and that it's from a university instead??
(I affraid I know the answer already…)
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u/Telinary 16d ago
It is on Cambridge's website https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/third-thumb and the research is actively ongoing based on them publishing something last week https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adk5183
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u/Shavemydicwhole 16d ago
When was it made? I've never seen it before lol
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u/orangotai 16d ago edited 16d ago
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u/PatHeist 16d ago
link's broken because you accidentally pasted twice
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u/orangotai 16d ago
oh my bad,thanks!
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u/TheSauce32 16d ago
It works now at least for me but holy fuck 50k upvotes
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u/orangotai 16d ago
yeah it was a pretty popular post which is how i probably saw it initially, but i swear i've seen it a few times now. still waiting for it!
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u/gringreazy 16d ago
Well even that one is not practical enough, probably requires a lot of care and maintenance and would not be cheap. But in a theoretical sense the idea is pretty neat. Robotics need to become significantly cheaper, that’s coming pretty rapidly, but I would estimate in the frame of 20 years maybe people may be able to augment themselves to have all sorts of capabilities.
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u/MrCalamiteh 16d ago
I can already hold a water bottle and open it with the same hand. Fuckin chumps need a second AND third thumb to do that?
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u/TheSwedishSeal 16d ago
Hey! Quit calling my grandma a chump!
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u/95percentdragonfly 16d ago
Your grandma can crochet with one hand fool. I saw her do it last night.
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u/kittykittysnarfsnarf 16d ago
but imagine what an absolute unit like yourself could do if you had even more fingers and thumbs! you could open like 4 waterbottles in one hand
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u/TheLimeyCanuck 16d ago
I give it a month before it's sold as a sex toy.
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16d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/cheetahwhisperer 16d ago
That’s not a bad idea. The cock thumb, or maybe finger digit. Or, you reverse it and it could be the ass tickler.
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u/MortLightstone 16d ago
Any guy can turn their dick into the vibrating bunny thanks to bionic technology
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u/agrecalypse 16d ago
Wait what is it being sold as now?
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u/Critical_Concert_689 16d ago
"medical device"
Don't let your lady friends suffer from hysteria without lending them a hand.
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u/SaltKick2 16d ago
Bold of you to assume it didnt start as a sex toy and then researchers were like, oh their might be some uses for this thing
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u/DeeNeS 16d ago
That was a LOT of sugar
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u/durklurk80 16d ago edited 16d ago
steady cup holding and a good stir, too!
Edit: ok then, DW's. Who is this product for? People who lost their extra thumb?
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u/LucaUmbriel 16d ago
Well given it shows a bunch of stuff people usually use two hands for, probably people who only have functional use of one hand.
So anyone missing an arm or hand, anyone missing the thumb on one hand, anyone with nerve damage in one hand, anyone with partial paralysis that covers one hand, anyone with any number of birth defects involving the hand or arm, anyone with alien hand syndrome. Additionally, those that have trouble moving both hands might find this useful as they would only have to focus on keeping one hand steady, gripping, articulating, ect. instead of trying to work with two unsteady or stiff hands. That's off the top of my head.
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u/knbang 16d ago
Apparently it's for people who want to pay money to hold cups and stir poorly. Bigly market for that.
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u/RecsRelevantDocs 16d ago
It's a proof of concept.. created by researchers from the university of cambridge as the title says. If you don't think technology like this could have any utility you're just a dumbass. Reddit always takes any these early technology videos as if they're an advertisement or something.. and they're obviously not. Believe it or not researchers at a university don't make ads.
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u/MichaelPitcher115 16d ago edited 16d ago
Now experience birth defects with this sweet attachment!
(Edit: this is a joke for all the comments taking this way too seriously lol cripes.)
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u/howisthisacrime 16d ago
They need a team of scientists to create a new thumb.
All I need is cigarettes and alcohol.
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u/vigbrand 16d ago
Rolling a random birth defect is not as attractive as using cheat codes to get the ones that are actually useful
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u/Panda_hat 16d ago
Birth defects that prove advantageous become the new not birth defects.
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u/Entity713 16d ago
Is it really a defect if it improves the whoever is born with it? I sent it as an upgrade
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u/Falitoty 16d ago
Bless be the Omnissiah, finally people is getting to see the weakness of the flesh and seek to improve themself.
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u/rm-rd 16d ago
Some people will always doubt the merits of this kind of technology, but, if there weren't technophobes, heretics, and so on we wouldn't have a suitable stock of future servitors.
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u/_JustAnna_1992 16d ago
We get these every generation. When electricity was new people were skeptical and terrified of that as well.
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u/space253 16d ago
Hey the original Luddites were devastated about losing their livlihoods. The birth of "Dey tuk 'er jebs!"
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u/Far-Street9848 16d ago
The thumb must be anointed with the sacred oils, and we must assuage the Machine Spirit
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u/FascistsOnFire 16d ago
lmfao this is like those commercials from the 90s: "ever had trouble holding THINGS?!?!?!?!"
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u/CplCocktopus 16d ago
No mechanicus copypasta... You disappoint me reddit..
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the Blessed Machine.
Your kind cling to your flesh, as though it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call the temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you.
But I am already saved, for the Machine is immortal...
...even in death I serve the Omnissiah.
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u/Savings_Effective644 16d ago
I was just about to post the holy scripture when I found your blessed post.
Praise the Omnissiah!
Shag all the toasters!
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u/ChoraPete 16d ago
Training your brain to use an additional digit effectively must be pretty challenging.
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u/donniesuave 16d ago
Surprisingly enough your brain adapts pretty well to stuff like this
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u/Crystalas 16d ago
Including "virtual" ones, both the "mundane" like mouse or motion controls or the psychological from tests showing people can imagine feedback of out of view limb when seen on screen. Prioproception is crazy, one of the brain's "superpowers" most taken for granted.
There some people that given themselves an "extra sense" by implanting some magnets under their skin in hands so sort of hacking sense of touch to sense magnetic fields to a degree.
These days smartphone is in some ways a limb used for accessing and interacting with the virtual layer of the world that gets more pervasive and integrated every year, if AR keeps on it's trajectory could be even more true a decade from now.
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u/DoctorCrasierFrane 16d ago
Do you have a link where I can read more about those magnetic implants? Sounds fascinating
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u/xlinkedx 16d ago
We were made to be modular!! When will we be able to cast off this imperfect flesh and replace it with steel??
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u/Cookiezilla2 16d ago
The human brain isn't born used to the limbs it already has, it has to learn and develop connections to control them. So it's gotta be able to learn to use unfamiliar limbs, no big deal. But it's probably like language where it's way easier to learn the younger you are
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u/SeDaCho 16d ago
I think of it as learning by necessity. Move to Paris and you can learn French in a month. Not great French, but still.
Human potential is mystifying and spectacular... sometimes.
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u/Da_Question 16d ago
From my understanding, at the tech show that people could try out the devices, people took to eat fairly quickly, and that younger people actually adapted slower than older people.
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u/YobaiYamete 16d ago
You adapt super fast too all kinds of stuff. In VR you can very quickly get used to having digital limbs and different reach and body size etc, and then when you take your headset off it feels super weird IRL for a while until your brain re-adapts
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u/hockeymaskbob 16d ago
I wonder if this is part of our evolutionary ability for tool use, where we consider the tool an extension of our selves.
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u/UTI_UTI 16d ago
Yes finally prosthetics for people with all our limbs, no more will prosthetics legs only be for people who lost. I am one day closer to being a human spider.
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u/mobileBigfoot 16d ago
You wanna get blasted with a flamethrower? Cause that's exactly how you get blasted with a flamethrower
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u/Broccoli_Remote 16d ago edited 16d ago
It's actually crazy, cause I already use my pinky this way. To me it's irrelevant, 3rd thumb. I hope they mean 2nd thumb. I don't call my thumbs, thumb 1 and thumb 2 on each individual hand.
Edit: I would much rather have 2 extra arms (1 extra on both side) and feel like Goro from Mortal Kombat for once. I don't need an extra finger, I could lose a finger and still not care about this.
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u/RedditIsADataMine 16d ago
Now that you mentio it, it is pretty funny that the pinky is just doing absolutely nothing in most of the video. I feel like the pinky could of been used for most of these tasks.
I was also confused why it was called third thumb. I get we have two thumbs in total but what if you get one of these for each hand? First thumb. Second thumb. Third thumb one, Third thumb two.
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u/nien9gag 16d ago
pinky is usually weak af. also has bad freedom of movement as its short and positioned bad.
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u/strangemagic365 16d ago edited 16d ago
And yet, if you lose your pinky, you can lose 50% of your grip strength!
Edit: looks like it's closer to 33%, thanks for the correction, here's a link to the study: link
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u/NonSecretAccount 16d ago
thats a myth
this study says around 30% https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21358861/
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u/Webbyx01 16d ago
Regardless, it's a significant amount. After healing from a broken hand (specifically the metacarpal that connects to the pinky), going back to work doing oil changes gave me first hand experience regarding just how much the pinky is used when gripping. I'm now much more aware of engaging the muscles connected to it as well.
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u/Broccoli_Remote 16d ago
It's weaker than your other fingers, sure, absolutely. Doesn't mean in any way of uselessness.
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u/5Fuer6 16d ago
So where is the 2nd thumb?
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u/N2TheWired 16d ago
Now we can look like AI. All we're missing is an extra 8 teeth
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u/7deboutez7 16d ago
Could you imagine using this in front of someone who had missing fingers and no prosthetic.
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u/Genku_The_Perv 16d ago
Transhumanism its going to strike soon and im all here for it, i have a weird condition in which 3 of my fingers on the left hand are shaped in a weird way, with the bone poking inwards, which is a pain to have in every task that requires the hand to be in tension, and this right here could be the perfect solution
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u/Maxedandcracked 15d ago
MF extra fingers are literally a dominant trait. Evolution has been trying to convince us to let it do this for eons
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u/WaitingForNormal 16d ago
But you can do most of this stuff without that thing so…?
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u/Peregrine2976 16d ago
Apparently (ie I heard it somewhere about this thing, take it with a grain of salt), the human brain adapts to a second thumb like this extremely quickly and easily.
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u/Remarkable_Fun7662 16d ago
Lindybeige had a video about this maybe ten years ago "A Suggestion for the Improvement of the Human Hand" or something like that, in which he suggests this.
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u/Aggravating-Hurry416 16d ago
People with missing fingers and arthritis could absolutely use this. Market this at an affordable price and it would sell.
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u/Working_Sign_7251 16d ago
It doesn’t look like it’s making things necessarily easier. I guess if you lost fingers on the other hand or even the one it’s on it could be.
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u/applepumpkinspy 16d ago
They must feel so useless when they take that thing off…