The Entire D6 Demo of DEKA Research’s Bionic Arm (1 of 3)
by Kara Swisher
Posted on September 11, 2008 at 12:41 AM PT
We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May.
Unfortunately, due to issues too complicated to go into, we have to post all the D6 interviews in several 15-minute parts (I know, I know).
But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column.
In the less contentious spirit of DEMOfall and TechCrunch50, two demo conferences taking place simultaneously this week, we’re happy to bring you all the demos we had onstage at D6.
Here’s part one of the conference’s most popular demo, with well-known inventor Dean Kamen (pictured here), who showed off his latest creation, the “Luke Arm” prosthesis.
The state-of-the-art bionic arm looks and feels to its user like his or her native limb.
The video of the demo is in three parts, all of which I will post today.
In this video, the DEKA Research founder and Segway creator talks about how he began the project after a visit to his lab by Defense Department officials, who told him that while battleground deaths were down, severe limb injuries were up.
Within a year, the prosthesis was built. In the video, Kamen shows the arm in use, including a man who is able to feed himself after more than a dozen years of being fed by someone else. Kamen also talks about how the arm can be controlled.
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Comments
I am currently doing a research paper on biomedical engineering, but especially focusing on prostheses. It would be wonderful if I can get more information about the new “bionic arm” and how it works. Please contact me if you can help. Thanks so much.
Posted by Thuy Nguyen at February 3rd, 2009 at 10:15 am