Luke Arm: Sci-Fi Prosthetics Become Real

I meant to post this earlier last week, but somehow it got lost in the shuffle of stories, but I can't deny it's coolness: Dean Kamen, inventor extraordinaire (and maker of the Segway), has developed an amazing new prosthetic arm that's light-years ahead of current prosthetics technology.

Dubbed the "Luke Arm" after a certain Star Wars character's robotic prosthetic arm, the Luke Arm shares much of the same functionality as its name sake, with a very articulate hand and modular constrution, allowing it to be used by different types of amputees (shoulder, elbow, wrist, etc.)

The Luke Arm also supports customised controls to fit the need of each amputee, from muscle control to foot controls.

Hit the link for a video of the Luke Arm in action. I unfortunately can't embed it here because IEEE apparently hasn't caught up to this century's web technologies.

Dean Kamen's Artifical Arm Video [IEEE Spectrum]