When I was a kid an older gentleman at my church had one of the older prosthetic arms that was a clamping hook. He would make jokes that it was controlled by the tapping of his foot, but in reality it was controlled by him hunching his shoulders. I’m not sure how he lost his arm, but even then I felt bad for him.He is no doubt deceased now, but I wonder how he’s react to the DEKA Arm which is being created by Dean Kamen who is famous for creating the Segway at the behest of DARPA.The current model is controlled by a controller in the shoe, and another one in the arm itself that is controlled by the remains of the wearer’s arm. This is an intermediate step on the way to having the entire arm controlled directly by the brain much like a real arm. In addition the arm has thousands of tiny air bladders that can be inflated to increase the rigidity of the arm for every day tasks such as the example of using a drill, but also for lifting up to 40 pounds.With these advances we’re years closer to a Cyberpunk Future.

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