Sci-fi moment becomes reality: 19-year-old wears world's most advanced bionic arms that move on their own when detached

19-year-old Tilly defies the odds of her limb impairment with the help of advanced prosthetics that have incredible, sci-fi-like capabilities.

What might seem straight out of a sci-fi episode has become a reality, thanks to astonishing advancements in technology. 19-year-old Tilly, who lost her hands to meningitis as a baby, is now living proof of how far we've come. She now wears the world’s most advanced wireless bionic arms. This unprecedented, futuristic technology opens up doors for advanced limb replacement and mobility.

19-year-old Tilly from Bath wears the most advanced bionic arms. (PC: IG/@tilly.lockey)

Tilly, along with the designer of the bionic arms, Joe, appeared on This Morning to show the upgraded capabilities of the advanced prosthetics and demonstrate how the new model works.

How it works

Tilly introduced the latest prosthetic upgrade, first in the world and said, “These are the brand new Hero pro. We had the hero arm, and this is the hero arm next level upgrade, so they are pretty cool. They are still like 3d, printed, muscle-operated, but we have got all these extra capabilities now, which is really really cool. ”

To demonstrate, she showed how the bionic arm responds to her muscle signals, easily picking up a glass from the table with precision and control.

She explained how the bionic arms function and said, “Yeah, so they are all muscle operated, I can just control it like that, can do anything I wanna do.”

When asked if the movement is controlled by her mind, Tilly clarified, “I mean everything normally comes from the brain but what's really great about these is it's just these two muscle senses so it's only squeeze to close, flex to open, cycling through grip modes and even that becomes second nature.”

Essentially, it is controlled by her mind as Tilly controls her bionic arms by flexing specific muscles in her arm, tiny movements that the sensors in the prosthetics pick up to open, close, or switch grip modes. This, in the end, is all powered by signals that start in the brain.

Real sci-fi moment

Here’s the real moment where Tilly shows that even when she removes her hand from the arm, she can still control and move it. Since it’s wireless, even after detaching, Tilly can operate it with her mind. She demonstrated this by making her hand crawl across the table.

How the internet reacted

The internet quickly drew comparisons to an iconic character in popular fantasy pop culture, as one user commented on the detached movement of the hand, which reminded them of the severed hand from Wednesday: "Like 'Thing', from Addams Family! 😂😂😂." Another user added, “Does it come in Halloween style or what? You could scare someone with that hand moving on its own.”

Meanwhile, another user applauded, agreeing with the majority on the appropriate use of technology, writing, “This is what technology and academics are for. Helping people. It’s utterly amazing! ❤️”