The human race has been incarcerated in this five-finger prison for far too long(Cue performance of “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.”) Sure, the whole opposable thumb plus four other digits-thing has served us well in the past. We can peel bananas, play video games and type, after all. Can you imagine, however, what the human race could accomplish with just one extra finger? Imagine the piano ditties! Imagine the, um, secret handshakes! One forward-thinking DIY-enthusiast has not only imagined it, he has actually done it.
A San Francisco State University student and member of the make-stuff community Instructables has up and made himself an extra finger. Known only by the username “Frenzy”, he titled his project Primitive Transhumanism #2: Sixth Finger. Details on the how-to are spotty since he didn’t supply a complete rundown on his tech, but he did suggest that he borrowed heavily from other projects. To that end we can figure out he used EMG sensors to trigger a server controlled by an Arduino, which was strapped to the back of a glove. The result? A fully functioning sixth finger which can be used for everything from faster cookie jar opening to uber-proficient taxi hailing.
Of course, this is only the very smallest of steps until the eventual and complete cyborg-ing of the human race. Hopefully we’ll be more Georgi La Forge and less Borg. I guess we just have to wait and find out. Until that day, put ‘er there for a high six.
Check below for some more photos of Frenzy’s six-fingered baby and a video of the tech in action.
