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Retractable implant?
So I doubt this is possible and if it is I'm sure it's extremely hard. But probably about ten years ago I read a book and one of the characters had a lock pick that would slide out of their finger when pressure was applie to part of their arm. Like I said before I doubt this is possible but if it is I think it would be a pretty cool and useful implant to have. Any thoughts?
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Displaying comments 1 - 30 of 44
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Well the way a lot of prosthetic arms/hands work is that certain commands are done with the muscle, and in turn, it makes the prosthetic arm/hand do a certain motion. I bet this could somehow be applied to an augmentation in one's finger, and probably most definitely applied to a prosthetic hand at that.
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So you think this would probably be possible? Just really hard to figure out? I feel like the hardest part would probably be finding a way to keep a path open for the pick to be able to slide around, it wouldn't be fun if everytime you went to use it you had to poke a new hole through your finger.
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Technically it could be possible, the mechanism doesn't have to be complicated at all - could even concievably be spring-loaded, but I imagine some advanced materials would be required to prevent infections. I've read about bacteria-killing (not antibiotic coated, but having the surface that breaks bacterial cells membranes - which doesn't deplete over time) materials being developed, but those aren't anywhere near being out of experimental phase I believe. And even then wouldn't be cheap. Without such a material risk of an infection by dragging bacteria under your skin with the retractable implant would be too big. As for the piercing of the skin - I figure it'd have to have some kind of a sheath inside body extending up to the epidermis and would have to pierce it (which shouldn't be painful as there aren't any nerve endings in its uppermost part), which would provide more stealth and possibly smaller infection risk while not using or would have to be completely transdermal with the opening of the sheath sticking through the skin. Another way is how it was done in cyberpunk 2020 p&p rpg... You get your whole hand/arm replaced with a cybernetic equivalent and the retractable picks or other tools are just modules installed inside... But we aren't there yet ;)
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I thought about using some kind of sheath but I was worried it would be too big and noticeable in your finger. But i suppose if you do devise a small enough sheath you wouldn't really have to worry about sterilization because the pick will have no contact with any part of the inside of your finger. However this could be (probably is) completely wrong.So lets just say the sheath solves the problems of needing a way to pierce the skin and the problem of infection risk; how would you deploy and retract the pick? I liked the whole idea of muscle contractions be able to move it but the sheath would prohibit this from happening. The only real way would probably be spring loading the pick as you said. But that mean the sheath would have to be even bigger in order to fit the spring mechanism, pick, and some kind of trigger.Really the more I think about this the more it drives me crazy haha. I love the idea but there are so many obstacles in my way, inkling the fact that i don't know how to pick a lock in the first place...That bacteria killing surface you were talking about sounds really cool I am going to have to look into that. Imagine how much easier all our lives would be if we were able to come into possession of something like this!
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Right off, I'll point out the utility issue. Why? I can carry a lock pick. This is so so often valid. Then again, the same can be asked for any kind of non-life saving implant. My personal line is: an implant must provide utility not otherwise available. Just my take though and I'm not closed minded enough that I can't just play with this as a though experiment. The route I'd go would be to try to create a pocket that is contiguously lined with skin. You'd still have risk of infection because it's a pocket, yeah... but much better than crossing the skin. I'd probably look into someway of keeping something beneath the nails of the hands. There is adhesive to underlying tissue, but I'd bet that one could separate the connective tissue beneath rather far back. I've hit my hand with a hammer and had a nail that just barely hung on for a long time. Then it fell off and overtime the nail grew back in. So, if the tissue beneath the nail really is just epithelial, then why couldn't we utilize space there like a pocket? The head of a pick would fit I'd bet.
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I have a simple answer to your question about why I would want this. Its cool. I know you could carry picks around in your pocket or wherever but then people know you have them and I wouldn't really want to carry them around with me all day everyday. I just think it would be cool to have a pick hidden in your finger just for emergency. Like the one time you lock yourself out of your house, or find yourself locked in someones basement :p But the main reason to have it is really just because its cool.Having a pocket lined with skin is a cool idea, not really sure how you make that happen though? Is it easy?I just read the anatomy of the nail section on wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_(anatomy))Other than the fact of it being very painful to insert anything under the nail; it sounds like it would affect the way your nail grew. The nail might just grow around the pick and keep it from being able to move out of the finger tip, not sure that under the nail would be a good idea? Of course I could be wrong, you have better knowledge of the human anatomy than I do.
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No, I think your right here. I thought the nail grew in differently than I've been reading about tonight and it seems a poor place to me now. I totally get the "because it's cool" position. To be honest, that really is the motivation behind most of the projects I start.
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I was thinking about the Transdermal issue whilst playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and one of the E-Books gave me an idea. Why not use some sort of bio-polymer that bonds with and imitates human skin and tissue during the healing process? Kind of like doing a skin graft, but with a synthetic instead of real skin. Maintain the integrity of the skin, whilst allowing something on the inside to reach the outside.
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That sounds like a good idea, would that also help prevent infection sense its not really your skin? I had a thought about this implant earlier in the morning: what if we make it magnetized so that you could pull it out with a magnetic implant in the other hand?
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"Why not use some sort of bio-polymer that bonds with and imitates human skin and tissue during the healing process?" Because as far as I know that biopolymer doesn't exist yet ;) Someone has to invent it first. Granted, there are quite many companies and universities working on that because it's a holy grail of medical implants - probably someone will make it sooner or later. I was thinking about the skin pocket idea too, however I don't think it'd be viable for fingers because it'd need to have full skin thickness to help prevent infections, which is 1,5-2mm, which would make it up to 4mm thick making it quite big for a finger. Also unless the pick would be only hidden inside and could be pulled out completely, it'd have to be anchored to the bone or you'd have trouble operating it, plus if you want to bend your finger it'd be a very short pick... I think there could be too much problems to make it work at current tech level... Only way to make something like that work is to make a skin pouch (that could actually be quite easy using expanders and some light surgery) to store the pick in, but it'd be just a 'pocket' for storing the pick, not one coming out of the finger.
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I guess storing a pick would be the next best thing. With the thicker skin pocket would sterilization be a big issue? And how would you keep the pocket open but still closed enough to prevent the pick from falling out. If the finger is not a good site for an implant like this I guess the second best place would be somewhere on the forearm sense it doesn't bend much and is still close enough to the hand that it would be easily accessible. From my understanding the forearm is a big enough site to be able to have full skin thickness in the pocket.
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Now this is a subject I've thought about for a long time. I thought a retractable garrote err...key chain wire...would be cool. I've also explored the skin pocket idea for a handcuff key storage. So I have posted this link in another thread long ago: http://news.bme.com/2012/10/06/successful-bipedicle-flap-procedure/ Difficult, but possibly doable for a pocket type variation? I once met a gal who got a bad case of road rash and had most of her ass and vagina distributed across a quarter mile stretch of I-15. A grew months later she has a new ass and vagina that are fully functional. So I'm thinking a technique exists for this kind of thing. I dig the lockpick idea for sure. If I still had hair I would put a few in my scalp so they were incognito and maybe put a magnet on the pick so I could use my finger implant to coax it out.
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Thanks for the links to both of those articles they were pretty cool. The one you posted @DirectorX makes me really confident in Brian Decker's abilities and I am psyched that he's going to be the one doing my magnetic implants this December.So im glad that the whole skin pocket idea isn't too far fetched and seems feasible, just really hard. Maybe some kind of reversal of what Brian Decker did would create an internal pocket? Like if you peeled back a layer of skin, cut out a pocket, and then somehow managed to push the skin into the pocket and make it line the whole thing?Im happy someone else finally likes the idea of a hidden lock pick haha a hidden handcuff key would be pretty bad ass too... but they're a little bigger than lock picks.
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What about splitting a handcuff key into two pieces and disguising those pieces as piercings? An 8 gauge piercing is roughly the same diameter as a handcuff key and an industrial piecing is more than long enough to act as the shaft of a key.
One end of the piercing would have the hollow tip and flag of a handcuff key. The other would have a standard threaded bead and a perpendicular hole. The hole would be the diameter of a 14 gauge piecing
When the time comes the piercings are removed so your hands will have to be in front of you. A standard 14 gauge piercing barbell or curved barbell is removed from any number of inconspicuous locations like a tongue piercing or eyebrow. The shaft of the 14 gauge piercing is inserted into the perpendicular hole of the 8 gauge piercing making a T shape. Now you have the leverage to open your own handcuffs.
The disadvantage is that you need your hands in front of you to get the piercings out of your face and it doesn't have that wow factor but if you're handcuffed and you pull this kind of stuff out of your face that's still pretty impressive. The advantage is that this is easier to make and any piercing gallery can help you with the body holes.Of course you can also get shoe lace ferrules which double as handcuff keys. -
Love it, McStuff. How would we go about getting a prototype made up?
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Nice. Everything would have to go down before booking because they will confiscate your piercings at that time.
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That is a really cool idea! I'd love to get my hands on a prototype. Any ideas on how to make one?
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hold up, is all of this to get out of handcuffs at this point? that being the case it's far simpler to keep a bobby pin on you and pick your way out. all cops use the same cuffs (i have a pair). they are easy to pic out of. also a cop would spot an earing that looks like a cuff key (ok the ones that aren't dumb, so maybe they wont) .the easier way is to keep a bobby pin attached to the back side of your pants or underwear (they'll never see it there) and pick your way out behind your back. That all said, i love the idea of a cuff key piercing and want one cause it's awesome. but for a practical escape it wouldn't really work unless used to get someone else out. I do like the sneaky idea though. would work great for a magic show of some sort. something like a nude escape where they check you for keys and picks
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Great minds think alike ... Had the same idea about a bobby pin before I went to bed - that's how I learnt to lockpick. But I'd still love to own the piercing version. After all, law enforcement aren't the only ones who use handcuffs. Also wondered about using a septum staple or non-flared retainer, rather than an industrial. I flip mine up for most of the day (while at work, family parties etcetera) so in theory you might get further through the cuffing process without it being discovered.
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Prototype thoughts. I am not a metal worker so I am throwing ideas out.1. Perhaps an internally threaded 8 ga piercing could have a flag welded to one end. The internally threaded piercings are already hollow.2. The entire thing could be machined from a solid piece of stainless steel but I have been told that stainless steel used for machining is high in sulfur so it may not be biosafe.3. Electroplating a biosafe metal to an existing handcuff key and threading the other end could work. I don't know what metals can be used for plating and which of them would be biosafe. A quick search shows that stainless steel is not able to be electroplated.A piercing would be confiscated at booking but if you haven't escaped before then you won't have an advantage with a handcuff key.If your'e heading into a situation where you might have to get out of handcuffs it makes sense to prepare and pin a handcuff key on the inside of your belt but if you are like me you never take your piercings out except to clean around them. So on the chance you find yourself unexpectedly cuffed this would be right there. Plus, if you really want to get paranoid you could have a second method. If they pull a bobby pin off your pants they may stop checking.In all likelihood the most common thing would be showing it off at parties. Practical piercings are uncommon so the wearer must be that much more so.
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My body piercer has been investigating - or by now, may well have organised - getting custom titanium jewellery made through a local 3d printing firm (I suspect laser sintered, then polished). If we had a 3D model, we could always use Shapeways at a push.
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I can make this model very quick. I'll base it off of those drawings that were posted. And post a link here when finished. If you want metal parts then sending the files to a company like shape ways would be best. I do have bio safe 3D printer plastic though if anyone wants to try that way.
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and here we go! this link is to a google drive folder that I gave public permission to edit! so if anyone has a 3D model that they want up they can use this folder to host them. GOOGLE DRIVE LINK if you want to edit this file (nothing is perfect on the first shot) I left instruction on how to easily edit the file with openSCAD. if you have an questions on how to use or do any of this stuff hit me up, I love to teach.
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Nice looking models. The flag at the end of the key is even simpler than you have drawn. Since I only have 2D drafting experience I sketched up the dimensions of my handcuff key. The important thing to note is there needs to be at least 6mm of shaft to go into the cuffs.
Earlier I said that an industrial piercing would be my first choice since it would provide a long shaft. After thinking about kjwx's question I no long think an industrial is the way to go. I suspect many people would not have enough ear cartilage to support an 8ga piercing. An 8ga piercing, it is nearly the same size as a 1/8" (3.5m) headphone plug.
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A slighty sleaker version (albeit poorly drawn) for those who dont want a huge piercing gauge. key with half of cylinder missing to reduce size and weight. woud still unlock a pair of cuffs but won't be as big and bulky
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just uploaded the models based off of @McSTUFF 's drawings. I agree most people wont want a huge thick thing. what if we make the body like a 12g and when it gets to the real key part make that the more fat section. I'm not sure how well this would really function with the smaller 14g hole in it. what is instead of a ball on the end it was a handle that screwed on?
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a double lock set of cufs (standard) needs to be turned both ways. a screw on handle would only be able to get one of the two locks. see my drawing. in mine just replace the screw in part with a piece that fits in with a hole going through both pieces for a little pin to secure them
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Does anybody know how long it would actually take to put something like that together? I feel like there are a lot of parts and it would take a bit to put it all together, especially if you are handcuffed.
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if you were handcuffed you would have to be able to reach your ear (if this is an industrial piercing.) if you can reach your ear and unscrew the ball on the end then you have your key. I'm thinking you have done it done in like 15-30 seconds
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