Images: What 'Star Wars' tech is real?

Remember The Empire Strikes Back? Luke Skywalker is fighting Darth Vader in Cloud City and loses his right hand in the lightsaber duel. Skywalker dives off the platform into the abyss, but manages to survive for the sequel. By the time of their climactic duel in Return of the Jedi, Skywalker is accomplished enough with his mechanical hand that he manages to slice off Darth Vader's.

Prosthetics is one field where reality is catching up to Hollywood. The traditional way of attaching artificial limbs is through belts or by suction, both of which work by attaching the prosthetic onto the limb stump. The downside is that the contact between the end of the limb and the socket causes friction, which can be harmful and painful.

Emerging technologies are promising. Robotic limbs, such as LTI's Boston Digital Arm System, offer finer, customizable control through an on-board microprocessor. Last year, British researchers reported that they had used deer antlers as an inspiration to find out how to bind live tissue directly to a metal implant. And some amputees already are experimenting with thought-controlled robotic arms.