The opening of “The Insane and Exciting Future of the Bionic Body,” Geoff Brumfiel’s Smithsonian article about next-wave prosthetics:
“Bertolt Meyer pulls off his left forearm and gives it to me. It’s smooth and black, and the hand has a clear silicone cover, like an iPhone case. Beneath the rubbery skin are skeletal robotic fingers of the sort you might see in a sci-fi movie—the ‘cool factor,’ Meyer calls it.
I hold the arm in my hand. ‘It’s pretty light,’ I say. ‘Yes, only a couple of pounds,’ he responds.
I try not to stare at the stump where his arm should be. Meyer explains how his prosthetic limb works. The device is held on by suction. A silicone sheath on the stump helps create a tight seal around the limb. ‘It needs to be comfortable and snug at the same time,’ he says.
‘Can I touch it?’ I ask. ‘Go ahead,’ he says. I run my hand along the sticky silicone and it helps dispel my unease—the stump may look strange, but the arm feels strong and healthy.
Meyer, 33, is slightly built and has dark features and a friendly face. A native of Hamburg, Germany, currently living in Switzerland, he was born with only an inch or so of arm below the left elbow. He has worn a prosthetic limb on and off since he was 3 months old. The first one was passive, just to get his young mind accustomed to having something foreign attached to his body. When he was 5 years old, he got a hook, which he controlled with a harness across his shoulders. He didn’t wear it much, until he joined the Boy Scouts when he was 12. ‘The downside is that it is extremely uncomfortable because you’re always wearing the harness,’ he says.
This latest iteration is a bionic hand, with each finger driven by its own motor. Inside of the molded forearm are two electrodes that respond to muscular signals in the residual limb: Sending a signal to one electrode opens the hand and to the other closes it. Activating both allows Meyer to rotate the wrist an unnerving 360 degrees. ‘The metaphor that I use for this is learning how to parallel park your car,’ he says as he opens his hand with a whir. At first, it’s a little tricky, but you get the hang of it.
Touch Bionics, the maker of this mechanical wonder, calls it the i-limb.“
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“It looks like Terminator…it looks futuristic”:
Tags: Bertolt Meyer, Geoff Brumfiel