Podcast: Dean Kamen: New prosthetic arm for veterans
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Copyright 03/04/2009
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Podcast Source:

View Podcast Online? Yes

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dean_kamen_previews_a_new_prosthetic_arm.html

Podcast length: 5 minutes 9 Seconds

Podcast Description

Part of a talk from TED 2007, in which Dean Kamen introduced the rationale behind, decisions leading up to and creation of the first real advance in prosthetic arms since the US civil war; the original version of the Luke Arm.


Presenter Biographies

Dean Kamen

Dean Kamen is an innovator, but not just of things. He hopes to revolutionize attitudes, quality of life, awareness. While an undergraduate, he developed the first portable infusion device, which delivers drug treatments that once required round-the-clock hospital care. And, through his DEKA Research and Development, which he cofounded in 1982, he developed a portable dialysis machine, a vascular stent, and the iBOT -- a motorized wheelchair that climbs stairs.


Transcript Available? No

Audio file available? No

Podcast Download? Yes

16.7 MB

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/download/video/3946/talk/82


Podcast viewing notes

Dean Kamen was approached in 2006, by the US military, who stated that at least 1,600 of the soldiers they sent overseas in the past few years were missing at least an entire arm. All the army could do was give them the same as they did during the civil war: A stick and a hook.

This really was the beginning of the modern arm prosthetics movement, that has gained ground so quickly since then.

The military desired a prosthetic arm that was haptic, could pick up a grape or a raisin without destroying it, and allow the amputee to put it in their mouths - totally impossible to even imagine back then.

Over that next year, all of 2006, he built and lead a team to create the first real prosthetic arm on the planet, the Luke Arm.


Additional Research Links

Dean Kamen

FIRST