From Luke Skywalker’s robotic hand to Imperator Furiosa’s mechanical arm, science fiction has long romanticized the bionic future.
At San Diego Comic-Con, one company is proving it’s already here.
San Diego-based PSYONIC Inc. is back at the convention this week, showing off the Ability Hand, a bionic prosthetic that can sense touch, execute over 30 grip patterns, and look like something straight out of a comic book panel.
It’s sleek. It’s functional. And it’s real.
Founded by Aadeel Akhtar, PSYONIC Inc. is redefining what prosthetics can do, and where they belong in the cultural conversation.
Akhtar’s inspiration for PSYONIC Inc. came from a very young age.
“That’s the first time I met someone with a limb difference,” he said, recalling a trip to Pakistan at age seven. “She was my age, missing her right leg and using a tree branch as a crutch.”
The moment left a mark. That childhood experience would guide his academic path, and later, his entrepreneurial one.
While working on his Ph.D., Akhtar traveled to Quito, Ecuador, with the nonprofit Range of Motion Project, which provides prosthetic care to underserved communities. There, he met Juan Suquillo, a man who had lost his arm in a landmine explosion.
“Juan was able to make a pinch with his left hand for the first time in 35 years,” Akhtar said. “And the hand, at the time, was three times the size of an average adult human hand. It had wires going everywhere, plugging into breadboards, power supplies, and the wall. But despite that, Juan said in front of international news stations that he felt as though a part of him had come back.”
That moment became a turning point.
“If we want everyone to feel the exact same way that Juan did, we have to commercialize the technology. And that’s when PSYONIC Inc. was born,” Akhtar said.
This year marks PSYONIC Inc.’s third panel appearance at San Diego Comic-Con. But this isn’t just another tech demo.
Attendees will get to hear directly from six users of the Ability Hand, each sharing personal stories, functional insights, and how their daily lives have changed.
“A lot of people don’t know how they actually work in real life and how functional they are for people with limb differences,” said Akhtar. “And so we kind of wanted to show the world, ‘Hey, this is how cool bionic limbs are in real life.’ They’re real. And this is what our users can do with it. These are their challenges. These are their limitations. But these are also some of the amazing things that they can do.”
The PSYONIC Inc.’s Ability Hand is made of carbon fiber and silicon, materials chosen for their durability and lightweight build. It’s capable of 32 grip configurations, from pinching to finger waving, and even throwing a “rock on” at a concert.
“It can even switch between different grips,” Akhtar said. “So if I open the hand twice, I can do a pinch. For example, if I’m at a rock concert, you know, you can rock on. And then our user favorite is the finger wave, where you can see all the fingers moving.”
The device is muscle-controlled, with fingertip sensors that relay pressure and touch back to the user, allowing for tasks as precise as feeding a baby or cracking an egg.
Today, the Ability Hand is used by around 150 individuals and has been integrated into roughly 50 robots, according to Akhtar. That crossover into robotics suggests a broader future, not just for human health, but for human-robot synergy.
And yet, at its core, PSYONIC Inc.’s mission remains personal.
“Seeing a bionic hand in real life, I think, is pretty compelling in and of itself,” Akhtar said. “It’s kind of like science fiction coming to reality, right? That’s one of the things that is so special about our panel, that you really get to see what the world is really like when it comes to this kind of technology and the future of it.”
Comic-Con might seem like an unlikely venue for showcasing medical-grade prosthetics. But for PSYONIC Inc., it’s perfect.
It’s where imagination and impact collide. And it’s where tech doesn’t just get noticed, it gets celebrated.
This isn’t about gadgetry for its own sake. It’s about building tools that help people reclaim parts of themselves.
For fans at Comic-Con, the PSYONIC Inc.’s Ability Hand might look like a cosplay accessory. But for the people who wear it every day, it’s something far more powerful:
A future they can finally feel.
Share this article:
