Monkeys With Robot Arms......Bad idea or Terrible idea?

Have any of you seen the nature shows where they have taught monkeys to speak using a electronic word synthesizer but the monkey just presses the button for food over and over again? I've got this image in my head now thanks to this article (see below) of cyborg monkeys with robot arms with electronic voice boxes that are repeatedly demanding "banana!", "apple!", "banana!" as they smash cars with their bionic robot arms and we all run away from them terrified. And yes, I know I should probably stop watching so much T.V.

Anyway, Here is the article, it's really amazing.

Scientists have trained a group of monkeys to feed themselves marshmallows using a robot arm controlled by sensors implanted in their brains, a feat that could one day help paralyzed people operate prosthetic limbs on their own, according to a study out Thursday.

A monkey feeds itself using a robotic arm.

Lead researcher Andrew Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh said he believes it won't be long before the technology is tested in humans, although he predicts it will be longer before the devices are used in actual patients with disabilities.

"I think we'll be doing this on an experimental basis in two years," said Schwartz, professor of neurobiology at the university's School of Medicine.

The results were appeared in the journal Nature's online edition on Thursday. The arm is controlled by a network of tiny electrodes called a brain-machine interface, implanted into the motor cortex of the monkeys' brains -- the region that controls movement.

It picks up the signals of brain cells as they generate commands to move and converts those into directional signals for the robotic arm, which the monkeys eventually used as a surrogate for their own.

The researchers report that one monkey achieved a success rate of 78 percent over 13 days of trials, while a second monkey completed its tasks with the arm in 61 percent of tests conducted over two days. They said the animals also were able to direct the arm around obstacles to ensure safe delivery of the food, which included small items such as grapes and marshmallows.

Here is a link to the whole story on cnn.com