"Terminator"-like cyborgs may still be just a thing of science fiction, but modern technological advances in bionics are enabling people to regain or enhance their ability to do everyday things that most people take for granted. Here are just a few examples of some bionically enhanced people (and animals).

• Customized 3D-printed appendages are helping a ~4-year-old girl regain use of her arms. The "magic arms" (as she calls them) attach to a modular body-powered upper-limb orthotic device called the Wilmington Robotic Exoskeleton (WREX). [url]
• The Mercedes Formula One team gave a new bionic arm to a teenage fan, who was born without a left hand, after he offered to sell Mercedes advertising space on his prosthetic arm. The customized i-LIMB Pulse, created with the help of Touch Bionics, allows him to do things like grip a pen to draw pictures and write, tie his shoe laces, and catch a ball. [url]
• Researchers are studying the amazing potential of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and neuroprosthetics. BCIs work because of the neuroplasticity of the brain, which allows neurons to form new connections in response to new stimuli. People, monkeys, and rats have all demonstrated the ability to use BCIs to perform various tasks. [url]

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Science fiction about bionics grossly underestimated how much advanced prosthetics actually cost to develop. The Six Million Dollar Man was off by at least a couple orders of magnitude. But bionic limbs have been getting a lot better over the years, and more Paralympic athletes are becoming famous for their achievements all the time. Here are just a few inspiring links about people and technology making awesome advances in bionics.

• Aimee Mullins has turned her prosthetic legs into a possibly desirable advantage -- prosthetics can make people taller and potentially super-abled instead of disabled. Mullins is a a champion sprinter in the Paralympics, and she has over a dozen different prosthetic legs -- and is having fun with the improving technologies of prosthetic limbs. [url]
• This American Life covered how people can totally miss seeing a one-armed woman. Mary Archbold is a professional dancer who has become incredibly good at concealing her missing appendage. [url]
• An exoskeleton called eLegs was developed with some Pentagon funding and could sell to the general public for about $50,000. Bionics are getting cheaper, but they're not quite ready to make anyone into Iron Man just yet. [url]

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Digital cameras are getting better all the time, but our natural vision only seems to degrade over time. (Almost everyone over forty years old will suffer from some kind of presbyopia.) There may be technological solutions to improving human vision, but so far, projects like Google Glass are more about augmenting vision, not necessarily improving a user's sight. Here are just a few interesting projects working on useful eye prosthetic devices.

• Paul Bach-y-Rita is a neuroscientist working on brain plasticity, studying how various senses can be re-mapped in the brain. People with vision problems might be able to learn how to see via tongue sensations. The brain might be able to process visual information in many different ways. [url]
• A retinal implant that could allow the completely blind to perceive light and shapes is in early trials -- in rats. There are several kinds of retinal implants that could potentially help people with degenerative retinal diseases, but the technology is still primitive compared to natural vision. [url]
• Sheila Nirenberg's TED talk on eye prosthetics describes how technology could be used to help the blind see again. Nirenberg's strategy to create software that can translate signals (from images) into input that the brain can understand could also be useful for other senses like hearing. [url]
• Steve Mann has been wearing a camera attached to his head for quite some time now -- as an exploration of wearable computing. Recently, though, he was assaulted for wearing a digital camera, and he's blogged about his experience trying to live in a society that may not be ready for people wearing personal computer vision systems. [url]

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A few years ago, Oscar Pistorius was not allowed to participate in the Olympics because, as a double amputee, his prosthetic legs might have given him an advantage over athletes who weren't using prosthetic legs. Prosthetic technology doesn't stand still, so it's understandable that the Olympic committee didn't want to allow devices that could give future athletes extremely unfair mechanical advantages. Here are just a few interesting prosthetic developments that might change the perception of "disabled" persons.

• Prosthetic limbs don't have to look like medical devices or dead body parts. Artificial legs can be made with a variety of different designs, and the manufacturer of these bespoke legs occasionally requests help from volunteers who can "donate" their legs as a scanned template for prosthetic designs. [url]
• Last May, Claire Lomas finished a marathon in a $70,000 bionic suit -- after being paralyzed from the chest down in 2007. She walked about 2 miles per day, so it took her about two weeks to complete the London Marathon. [url]
• MIT researchers have created a glucose fuel cell that could be used to power brain implants or other implantable electronics that could control prosthetic devices. This device could get all the sugar it needs from cerebrospinal fluid, so it wouldn't need batteries (although external prosthetics would still need to be powered separately). [url]

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The six million dollar man was grossly underpriced. But someday the technology to to augment human limbs and senses could come down in costs. There are plenty of engineers working on robotic prosthetics. Here are just a few examples.

• The Mercedes GP Petronas F1 team is sponsoring a bionic limb for a 14-yr old kid... and you can, too. This sounds a bit more praiseworthy than the million dollar home page. [url]
• Robotic exoskeletons are on the way (in a decade or so). The Raytheon Sarcos XOS 2 is the second generation of the XOS 1 robo-suit which came out in 2008. But late adopters should probably wait for the third iteration to really work out the kinks. [url]
• A powered prosthetic leg that has software-controlled knee and ankle joints weighs just 9 pounds -- a bit less than most natural lower limbs. This artificial leg also has an "anti-stumble" feature and can go about 8 miles on a single charge. [url]
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