Dean Kamen's bionic arm, custom made for Iraq vets

[BurtWorm]

There's a link below to what looks like a bootleg video of a presentation Kamen (inventor of the Segway and iBot wheelchair) made to DARPA staff. It's an amazing piece of work. I wonder how many Iraq vets (or other amputees) will be able to afford them.)


http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2007/03/cyborg_arm_darp.html

This weekend the internet was buzzing about a contraband video of Dean Kamen's latest venture into the world of artificial limbs. ... We personally think Mr. Kamen deserves an award for this work which is aimed at helping US military soldiers who have been injured from car bombs and such in the war on terror.<sic>









The boys at Gizmodo received an update from an informed tipster with a bit of background on how Kamen's bionic arm came to be.

Here's what I recall about it. He was approached by Darpa to develop the worlds best prosthetic arm. Our men and women wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan deserve it. We owe it to them.

The General from Darpa gave Kamen basically this blue sky order: I want an arm that's so precise that a person could pick up a grape or a raisin and without looking be able to tell the difference.

At first Dean begged off. It was too hard, it was too resource intensive, DEKA had a lot of other projects on the table. But Dean said he'd go to military hospitals and meet with the people. He met with combat wounded and was so inspired by them and their courage in meeting the challenges of life missing one or two arms that he decided they'd give it the best shot they could.

And so began DEKA's attempt to make the worlds best prosthetic limb, and do it with a very short timetable, to get it to the people who would need it.....

[Greyskye]

1. Dean Kamen

Dean Kamen will go down in history along with da Vinci, Edison, Marconi, etc. Sure he overestimated the popularity/usefulness of the Segway; but in general, his inventions always seem to be incredibly beneficial. :thumbsup:

[geomon666]

2. The answer is easy.

I wonder how many Iraq vets (or other amputees) will be able to afford them.

None.

[ComerPerro]

3. no kidding. how much will that thing cost, and will the Gov't pay for it?

[semillama]

4. I'd guess around $6 million. n/t

[slowry]

5. Live to kill again.

Sorry, bad mood. I love robotics and science in general, but there are disturbing undertones to things like this, that no amount of sci-fi books or films might desensitize me to :crazy:.