Dude! Cyberarm!

[unixronin]

In a brief interview on Wednesday, Kamen told me what separates this new limb from past efforts is the depth of motion that it can offer.  With just two days of training, said Kamen, the founder of Deka Research and Development, a soldier who lost both arms in Iraq was able to use the prosthetics to disassemble and then reassemble an M-16 rifle.

Comments

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

Oooh, does this mean that I get my new knee soon?

woohoo!!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Knees are simple. They do pretty good knees already. Does yours have some special problem that makes existing hardware unsuitable?

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

It's the 'we give you back about 90% of max mobility, with 6 months of downtime'

Those numbers seem to go up (mobility) and down (recovery time) every year. At some point, I'll get fed up with the annoyance and ache and pain and whatnot and just get a new one.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

They're not quoting me anything near 6 months downtime. 6 months for full recovery, sure. But if I remember rightly, they want to have me weight-bearing in a week.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

Hunh. Last time I talked to my ortho, he said that I'd be off my feet for six months.

And being as how I'm about 85% functional right now, with some pain, it didn't seem worth it.


Also, with the unemployment, waiting until I'm gainfully employed to the tune of health insurance.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Also, with the unemployment, waiting until I'm gainfully employed to the tune of health insurance.

Oh yeah. Definitely that. I'll have a $500 in-network copay; everything else is covered.

Honestly, if I was 85% functional, I wouldn't be considering knee replacement. But I'm maybe 50%.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's one of the reasons that I'm waiting. It's broken? But it works. The problem is mostly that it's just never going to get better, and I've got serious endurance limits on it. The knee gives out and just gets too painful to move long before any other part of me does. And it's annoying. Before the accident, I ran marathons. Now, I can cover five miles before it's just done.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

You probably have no idea how ecstatic I would be to be able to run five miles again.... or even a mile. Time was I could run two and a half miles in under fifteen minutes, take a five-minute breather, and then run the same two and a half miles back the other direction — uphill — inside twenty. Now? Well, I can sort of stagger and lurch maybe a hundred yards, if the ground is smooth and level, but I'll pay for it for probably two days.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

Yes. Your brokenness dick swings lower and fatter then mine does. I'm sorry that I complained about my minor brokenness to you. Is 50 lashes enough, or should I include rubbing salt into the wounds?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Heh. Enough of that already. Stoppit! :)

Having never been able to run marathons myself, I can't really appreciate that myself, so it's something of a two-way street. But I would really like to be able to run again. At all.

(Disclaimer: I'm not expecting knee replacement to fix that at one shot. My left foot and ankle are a MAJOR part of that particular problem.)

(Sorry if it came across as one-up ... er, downmanship. Wasn't intended that way.)

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

Holy crap! Disassemble and reassemble and M-16? Even if it takes a while that's a tremendous leap in fine dexterity. I'm looking forward to hearing more.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was exactly my thinking too.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

That is NOT trivial! I wonder how long it took. It is simply amazing that it is possible at all.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward with great interest to seeing how it works.

[luke-jaywalker.livejournal.com]

This is *seriously* impressive.

[smandal.livejournal.com]

FYI, Kamen gave a moving TED Talk (http://youtube.com/watch?v=RiJzJ771vDw) on this work.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that link.

I've thought for some time now, actually, that of all the companies I know of in the world, there is no place I would more like to work than DeKa. Because DeKa does stuff like this.