A team of scientists from Switzerland’s EPFL, led by Prof. Sylvester Micera, has conducted research on the possibility of humans using a third arm. This was done within the framework of the Third Arm project, which is aimed at studying the possibilities of human use of artificial body parts. In this case, the possibilities of concentrating attention on controlling three functional limbs at once were studied.
At the first stage of the study, participants were given virtual reality headsets, gloves and a special belt with sensors for abdominal muscle movement. Three hands were displayed in VR, the third was symmetrical, with two thumbs on each side, and was controlled by abdominal movements. Experiments with 61 volunteers for 150 hours showed that people very quickly master such a system and begin to control the third hand quite well.
What is important – the participants did not have to strain too much, concentrate their attention, they could, for example, control the third hand and talk at the same time. At the second stage, the virtual tool was replaced by a physical one, in the form of a plastic stick on a belt with sensors. Users were able to move it without tilting the body with quite a lot of accuracy.
