Hugh Herr

All the natural biomechanics mediated by the central nervous system emerged via the synthetic limb as an involuntary, reflexive action.

Here's Jim descending steps, reaching with his bionic toe to the next stair tread, automatically exhibiting natural motions without him even trying to move his limb.

Because Jim's central nervous system is receiving the proprioceptive signals, it knows exactly how to control the synthetic limb in a natural way.

Now, Jim moves and behaves as if the synthetic limb is part of him.

For example, one day in lab, he accidentally stepped on a roll of electrical tape.

Now, what do you do when something's stuck to your shoe?

You don't reach down like this, it's way too awkward.

Instead, you shake it off, and that's exactly what Jim did after being nearly connected to the limb for just a few hours.

What was most interesting to me is what Jim was telling us he was experiencing.

He said, the robot became part of me.

Well, because of the precipitous increase, sadly, of diabetes.

Extreme diabetes, sadly, often leads to the need to amputate a limb, typically a leg.

So the numbers are climbing higher and higher because of the increase in diabetes.

For sure.

The surgery itself, over 100 people to date.

And at all levels, you know, below the knee, above the knee, below the elbow, above the elbow.

The electromechanical integration into those new surgically constructed tissues will take longer.

But I think in about five years from now, from a commercial setting, the full bionic reconstruction can be happening clinically, which is quite exciting.

A lot of people qualify.

We can apply the surgical technique in an acute case at the time when the limb is amputated.