Carbon fiber prosthetic limbs are nothing new to us, we know they exist and we have even featured articles about them more than once but this is a first. This prosthesis is called the BeBionic3 myoelectric hand and it’s made by a British company named RSLSteeper.

About six years ago, Nigel Ackland lost half of his arm in an unfortunate work accident. And now rather than sporting a typical, silicon, prosthetic hand that mimics human flesh, Ackland is sporting the Terminator look.

The BeBionic3 is far beyond your typical prosthetic arm and allows for more control and greater grips. It is made with a full carbon fiber body and has aluminum and alloy knuckles. The hand works from sensors on both sides of his arm and once activated, can be controlled by two muscles. It comes with eight different programmed grips which allow him to point a finger, type on a keyboard, hold a mouse and much more…like scaring children with a “come here” motion. You can see what I mean in the video below. The thumb position can also be moved around, to allow for more reach and grab. While there is no exact word on price yet, you can expect it to go for a pretty penny. But it will hopefully be covered by most insurance and Medicare in the U.S. and the national healthcare in the U.K.

Also from the video, you can see that the BeBionic3 is gentle enough to grab eggs from a carton yet powerful enough to hold onto a nice cold beer. It’s also obvious from the video, Ackland considers himself extremely fortunate to have been given such an awesome second chance at having a hand.

Make sure to check out the videos below to see for yourself. It truly is amazing how far prosthetic have come, thanks to carbon fiber ;).

It looks to us like the “carbon fiber” exterior of the hand is actually done by using Hydro Grafix as opposed to real carbon fiber, but would match nicely when combined with a raw carbon fiber prosthetic arm such as Nigel’s.

[Source: Wired]