TED: Dean Kamen's cyborg arm

Mark Frauenfelder 9:51 am Fri Mar 9, 2007

Almost 20,000 (I don't know the exact number — I thought Kamen said 18,000. See update below) soldiers have returned from Afghanistan and Iraq missing one or both arms. Here at TED, inventor Dean Kamen showed a short video of an artificial arm he and his team designed in 13 months at the request of the Department of Defense. The arm can scratch a nose, pick up a pen, and perform other delicate actions. It weighs six pounds and can be covered with a mirror-image cast of the person's other arm. People in the audience were crying when they watched the video. Here's a bit more about the cyborg arm: Link

Reader comment:

Ivy G says:

I'm not sure where you got this astonishing number from, but it's not right. According to Time magazine January 2007 (if you believe them to be a reliable source) the figure for soldier amputees (not specified if it's arms or legs) is 500 and counting. Still horrifying, but FWIW… accurate.

See this article:
"The 500 major amputations -— toes and fingers aren't counted — represent 2.2% of the 22,700 U.S. troops wounded in action. "

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