I was very relieved when I just sent in my video for this project and could be done with it. But of course what good is a project if you don’t reflect on it!
The goal of this project was to relate something interesting in Star Wars to something we were interested in, in real life. I learned quickly after I started research that this was very easy to do with Cybernetics. In fact there are prosthetic prototypes designed after the Luke Skywalker forearm.
Left: Arm from films; Right: Prosthetic Developed by DARPA
This was one of the most interesting parts in my opinion as it is a new up and coming idea that could solve some of the worst problems for amputees, obviously the improved usage would be there, but even the anguish of phantom pain they experience would be cured by the sense of touch given through the arm. However, at this point I was far from done because my question was concerning how to reanimate someone completely as George Lucas did Darth Vader and General Grievous.
I went on to find out that there are implants very close to the eye implants in both Darth Vader and General Grievous. Similar to the “Luke Arm” the second sight argus II implant restores use in the most realistic way. The second sight implant allows the wearer to see very faint and blurry images but shows potential for major improvement in departments of both function and practicality for the user.
As well as cybernetics being done in labs, I was surprised to learn that scientists are trying to develop lab grown organs that can be used for a transplant.
Lab Grown Heart
This would mean that the patient would not have to wait for a donor and the procedure of a transplant would be smoother and potentially save more lives or improve quality of life.
These innovations are yet to come together to create a half human half robot, however there already people with individual or paired up versions of these technologies, making them by definition a cyborg. I came to realize when I was finished that the technology used to revive Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise was really almost here. I think that in the near future it would be very possible to combine improved versions of the cybernetic parts already being used resulting in a cybernetic person similar to Darth Vader.