Four years ago James Young lost his left arm after falling in between two train carriages.
Now Konami has helped build him a replacement for that arm, inspired by Big Boss and Metal Gear Solid. It’s insane.
It started with an advertisement. Konami was looking for amputees for an experiment. 60 people applied and James was eventually selected. The idea was simple: build a cutting edge bionic arm inspired by Big Boss’s arm in Metal Gear Solid V. Arguably a bizarre marketing stunt, but the end result has been powerfully positive for James.
James can control the arm using muscle signals. He can shake your hand, he can pick up coins. A smart watch is embedded in the arm, it has USB ports to charge devices. It sounds amazing. This arm has changed his life, and it could change the lives of others. It cost roughly $120,000 to make.
The above BBC documentary is absolutely fascinating and is a definitive look at both the technology and James’s life with the new arm. James also did a Reddit AMA where he talks more about his situation. He also has a GoFundme fund-raising campaign designed to help improve the technology.
Comments
8 responses to “This Amputee Gamer Has An Arm Inspired By Metal Gear Solid”
Douglas Reynholm’s Robot Hand.
I would have used MINE for good!
It’s another great example of a sci-fi inspiring reality. Games like Deus Ex have caused me to think that if I could go back, I would’ve loved to study bio-engineering and specialize in next generation prosthetics. Some of the stuff being produced now is amazing and in time the costs of limbs like this will drop as they become produced in commercial quantities.
why do you need to go back. you can definitely go ON and study that stuff now…
Wow that’s awesome
Can’t help but feel that in trying to make the arm more like Snake’s it became less useful than, say, Angel’s arm. I get that it’s a marketing stunt and you’d be pretty stoked to get the thing either way, but I definitely would rather have had Angel’s prosthetic than James’.
Oh, this is Awesome, I expect a follow up!
Surprised they went with the muscle twitch method vs actually having a microchip embedded in his arm that sends the signals his brain is giving to the phantom limb to the prosthesis. (Yes they do have this tech, plenty of Youtube you can look into).
This can actually be done allot cheaper with 3d printers today (not the chip part), but I guess they hired allot of personal helpers and such to get it done whom cost a fair bit.