• Amputee Plans to climb stairs of the Chicago's Willis Tower with Bionic Leg
    12 replies, posted
[quote]CHICAGO — Zac Vawter considers himself a test pilot. After losing his right leg in a motorcycle accident, the 31-year-old software engineer signed up to become a research subject, helping to test a trailblazing prosthetic leg that’s controlled by his thoughts.He will put this groundbreaking bionic leg to the ultimate test Sunday when he attempts to climb 103 flights of stairs to the top of Chicago’s Willis Tower, one of the world’s tallest skyscrapers. If all goes well, he’ll make history with the bionic leg’s public debut. His whirring, robotic leg will respond to electrical impulses from muscles in his hamstring. Vawter will think, “Climb stairs,” and the motors, belts and chains in his leg will synchronize the movements of its ankle and knee. Vawter hopes to make it to the top in an hour, longer than it would’ve taken before his amputation, less time than it would take with his normal prosthetic leg — or, as he calls it, his “dumb” leg. A team of researchers will be cheering him on and noting the smart leg’s performance. When Vawter goes home to Yelm, Wash., where he lives with his wife and two children, the experimental leg will stay behind in Chicago. Researchers will continue to refine its steering. Taking it to the market is still years away. “Somewhere down the road, it will benefit me and I hope it will benefit a lot of other people as well,” Vawter said about the research at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Bionic — or thought-controlled — prosthetic arms have been available for a few years, thanks to pioneering work done at the Rehabilitation Institute. With leg amputees outnumbering people who’ve lost arms and hands, the Chicago researchers are focusing more on lower limbs. Safety is important. If a bionic hand fails, a person drops a glass of water. If a bionic leg fails, a person falls down stairs. The Willis Tower climb will be the bionic leg’s first test in the public eye, said lead researcher Levi Hargrove of the institute’s Center for Bionic Medicine. The climb, called “SkyRise Chicago,” is a fundraiser for the institute with about 2,700 people climbing. This is the first time the climb has played a role in the facility’s research. To prepare, Vawter and the scientists have spent hours adjusting the leg’s movements. On one recent day, 11 electrodes placed on the skin of Vawter’s thigh fed data to the bionic leg’s microcomputer. The researchers turned over the “steering” to Vawter. He kicked a soccer ball, walked around the room and climbed stairs. The researchers beamed. Vawter likes the bionic leg. Compared to his regular prosthetic, it’s more responsive and more fluid. As an engineer, he enjoys learning how the leg works. It started with surgery in 2009. When Vawter’s leg was amputated, a surgeon repositioned the residual spaghetti-like nerves that normally would carry signals to the lower leg and sewed them to new spots on his hamstring. That would allow Vawter one day to be able to use a bionic leg, even though the technology was years away. [/quote] [URL]http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/amputee-to-climb-stairs-of-chicago-skyscraper-using-thought-controlled-bionic-leg/2012/10/31/22c9e272-232b-11e2-92f8-7f9c4daf276a_story.html[/URL]
That's exactly what I always thought I would hope for if I lost a limb or generally became crippled in some way. The possibility of becoming an almost college to the people who work on the prosthesis and let them help you, while helping them work on it, actively.
[quote]When Vawter’s leg was amputated, a surgeon repositioned the residual spaghetti-like nerves that normally would carry signals to the lower leg and sewed them to new spots on his hamstring. That would allow Vawter one day to be able to use a bionic leg, even though the technology was years away.[/quote] They need to start doing this with every single amputee they can. The future definitely holds great prosthetics, and these people should not be held back from that opportunity. Also, there are pictures in the article, OP didn't add them though because it's in some bullshit slide-show program.
This is a great story, but I still can't stand the name "Willis Tower". It is the goddamn Sears Tower!
[QUOTE=_Kent_;38263218]This is a great story, but I still can't stand the name "Willis Tower". It is the goddamn Sears Tower![/QUOTE] I felt really tempted to find a picture of the tower and photoshop Bruce Willis's face in after I read the thread title.
[QUOTE=_Kent_;38263218]This is a great story, but I still can't stand the name "Willis Tower". It is the goddamn Sears Tower![/QUOTE] It's the Big Willie
I'm sure he'll make it. It reminds me of this guy doing a Ted talk. Spoiler : The speaker has no legs from the knee down. [video=youtube;8AoRmlAZVTs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AoRmlAZVTs[/video] Just watch towards the end, so damn awesome.
shouldn't have spoiled it for the shock factor. Anyway, having finished DXHR a couple weeks ago I can't link this to anything but augmentations. I mean, this is as close as it gets, currently. Mechanical, controlled by nerves, etc. Imagine this tech in ten years.
[QUOTE=latin_geek;38264653]shouldn't have spoiled it for the shock factor. Anyway, having finished DXHR a couple weeks ago I can't link this to anything but augmentations. I mean, this is as close as it gets, currently. Mechanical, controlled by nerves, etc. Imagine this tech in ten years.[/QUOTE] Problem is that human muscle is relatively stronger and better than scifi authors would like to think. Even if we pull off stuff like nerve interfaces and such, our electronics aren't all that much better than what our biological bodies are. It's surprisingly hard to make a human sized arm that would be stronger and faster than the human one (one is easy at cost of the other, both at once are not, really). And even if you deal with control (nerve) interface, a big problem is energy supply, because at least so far you would have to haul a heavy battery with you or something. Anything you could safely tap into your bloodstream that could sustain an electronic device meant to do actual mechanical work is something we completely lack at this point. I am all for "augmentations" and they are possible future, but not as likely and as easy as people might like to think.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;38266256]Problem is that human muscle is relatively stronger and better than scifi authors would like to think. Even if we pull off stuff like nerve interfaces and such, our electronics aren't all that much better than what our biological bodies are. It's surprisingly hard to make a human sized arm that would be stronger and faster than the human one (one is easy at cost of the other, both at once are not, really). And even if you deal with control (nerve) interface, a big problem is energy supply, because at least so far you would have to haul a heavy battery with you or something. Anything you could safely tap into your bloodstream that could sustain an electronic device meant to do actual mechanical work is something we completely lack at this point. I am all for "augmentations" and they are possible future, but not as likely and as easy as people might like to think.[/QUOTE] Not saying they're easy, that's why we gotta give the tech some time. Ten years ago nobody was thinking about carbon nanotubes, the present's "wonder material". You're obviously not going to tap into the bloodstream for energy, but batteries are getting better every year, be it some changes in an already existing technology or a brand new one. Eventually we'll have batteries you can fit into the "augmentation" or carry in a light backpack or something like that.
[QUOTE=M.Ciaster;38264362]I felt really tempted to find a picture of the tower and photoshop Bruce Willis's face in after I read the thread title.[/QUOTE] Every time I hear Willis tower I think of [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/0UJmC.png[/IMG]
Sears Tower
It's amazing how important climbing 103 flights of stairs and falling 24 miles could be.
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