Those problemsâEUR"make the deaf hear, make the blind see, and make the lame walkâEUR"are all loft goals. "Making the deaf hearâEUR"we've done that. Making the blind seeâEUR"that may or may not be feasible. Making the lame walk? That may be the wrong goal," he said.What is possible, he said, is working with the upper extremities using tiny injectable neurostimulators to activate weak and paralyzed muscles. "We needed to get rid of the wires,"he said. The BIONs, which Loeb invented, can create functional movement. To do this, he said, you need to coordinate a feedback system and you need signal processing. Applications include stroke patients, flexural contractures, and osteoarthritis.Loeb also talked about some exciting advances in biomimetic tactile sensing, replicating the skin's ability to feel in the fingers of prosthetic hands. Using an array that consists of a rigid core surrounded by a salt water, a sensor in the finger pad becomes part of the transduction process.Like the cochlear implant, Loeb said it may take years before people really start to notice these breakthroughs, but one day I suspect that a tactile sensing prosthetic will be the norm for patients who have lost their arms.