The dream of a prosthetic limb that touches and feels like a natural limb, is still some ways away. A natural arm or leg processes sensory data at a rate we just do not have the bandwidth to recreate, much less tie into the human nervous system. That said however, significant progress has already been made, and development continues at a rapidly accelerating pace.

This is an edited book comprised of the works of specialists around the globe. It concentrates exclusively on myoelectrically powered upper limb prostheses ? those powered by utilising inherent electrical signals within the patient?s muscle, and as such, goes into all the detail you could ever ask for on these devices.

The i-Limb, made by Touch Bionics, is one of the more advanced prosthetic hands. Its makers claim its the world's most advanced bionic hand. Whilst this claim does not hold water, it is certainly, at time of release in mid 2007, one of the most advanced hands, although not the most advanced - that honour goes to a DARPA military development.

A primer on limb prosthetics, is designed as a scientific aside, almost a technical manual for how life with a prosthetic will change, going into a great deal of detail on each kind of prosthetic, using medical and general notational jargon, as it discusses each joint?s prosthetisement, in a clinical, step by step manner.

A resource list, dedicated to chronicling the efforts of recreating severed limbs via virtual reality, so as to fool the brain into believing the limb is still attached, and thus eliminating the chronic pain, with sensations of stabbing, burning or cutting which are often severe, that 65% of amputees suffer.