The most incredible invention of the year - an extra thumb you can control

Dani Clode is a grad student at London’s Royal College of Art, and her latest creation is called "The Third Thumb". This robotic thumb made of flexible materials straps onto one's hand on the side next to the little finger.

The thumb can be controlled with the help of special sensors hidden under the soles of a user's feet. If you press down with your foot, the Third Thumb makes a grasping movement. The prosthesis and the shoes sensors are connected via Bluetooth.

According to the author of the project, the Third Thumb can become an integral part of you. It will help its users to grasp things easier and change the process of typing or playing a musical instrument. But it's not all that simple. As it turns out, the whole point of the project is not to create a product with multiple functionalities...

Dani wanted to understand the nature of the connection between the extra limb and its owner. Some people treat it as a tool, while others feel it a part of them and even give it a name. Over the course of their history, prosthetic limbs have saved and improved thousand of lives. Anyway, we still see prosthetics only as a means of replacing lost capabilities, but it can become something more in the nearest future. Dani Clode's main aim was to reimagine the way we think of prosthetic devices, as they can and will expand the functionality of our body.