So it appears that a number of developers – including Peter Kuschnigg, later at Otto Bock, Vienna, for the design parts of the Michelangelo hand – developed what then is then and maybe still called the “Intrinsic Hand”.

The article [PDF] provides for an interesting read and the video (below) shows amazing capabilities, not all of which seemed to have made it into the commercial Michelangelo hand Otto Bock will try to sell anytime soon.

As Otto Bock never appeared to have patented the inner workings of the Michelangelo hand (only a technical glove design by Peter Kuschnigg) we all wonder what machinery resides inside that hand. Maybe a watered down version of the “Intrinsic Hand”.

That type of commercialization is not new, though – IBM built the Power 4 processor whose cheaper and less powerful variation was used by Apple as “PowerPC G5”. Also, shortly after Touchbionics that brought us the “iLimb” was in the news to have trouble extending a massive bank loan, an extremely similar hand surfaced on the RSL Steeper website that then was called “BeBionic”.

After all, really new developments in prosthetics fall into two categories: useless academic models that are jittery and unreliable, weigh 4-7 kg and will fall apart when lifting more than 1/2 a liter of mild, and, secondly, copies of well seasoned and established products or product design.

Without surprise, the second option is more interesting from my viewpoint as I want to wear something that works.