TED2007
Dean Kamen: Luke, a new prosthetic arm for soldiers
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Inventor Dean Kamen previews the prosthetic arm he’s developing at the request of the US Department of Defense. His quiet commitment to using technology to solve problems -- while honoring the human spirit -- has never been more clear.
Dean Kamen - Inventor
Dean Kamen landed in the limelight with the Segway, but he has been innovating since high school, with more than 150 patents under his belt. Recent projects include portable energy and water purification for the developing world, and a prosthetic arm for maimed soldiers. Full bio
Dean Kamen landed in the limelight with the Segway, but he has been innovating since high school, with more than 150 patents under his belt. Recent projects include portable energy and water purification for the developing world, and a prosthetic arm for maimed soldiers. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
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I got a visit almost exactly a year ago,
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a little over a year ago, from a very senior person at the Department of Defense.
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Came to see me and said, "1,600 of the kids that we've sent out
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have come back missing at least one full arm.
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Whole arm. Shoulder disarticulation.
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And we're doing the same thing we did for -- more or less,
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that we've done since the Civil War, a stick and a hook.
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And they deserve more than that."
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And literally, this guy sat in my office in New Hampshire and said,
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"I want you to give me something that we can put on these kids
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that'll pick up a raisin or a grape off a table,
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they'll be able to put it in their mouth without destroying either one,
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and they'll be able to know the difference without looking at it."
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You know, had efferent, afferent, and haptic response.
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He finishes explaining that, and I'm waiting for the big 300 pound paper proposal,
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and he said, "That's what I want from you."
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I said, "Look, you're nuts. That technology's just not available right now.
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And it can't be done.
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Not in an envelope of a human arm,
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with 21 degrees of freedom, from your shoulder to your fingertips."
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He said, "About two dozen of these 1,600 kids have come back bilateral.
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You think it's bad to lose one arm?
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That's an inconvenience compared to having both of them gone."
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I got a day job,
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and my nights and weekends are already filled up with things like,
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let's supply water to the world, and power to the world, and educate all the kids,
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which, Chris, I will not talk about. I don't need another mission.
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I keep thinking about these kids with no arms.
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He says to me, "We've done some work around the country.
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We've got some pretty amazing neurology and other people."
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I said, "I'll take a field trip, I'll go see what you got."
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Over the next month I visited lots of places, some out here, around the country,
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found the best of the best.
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I went down to Washington. I saw these guys, and said,
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"I did what you asked me. I looked at what's out there.
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I still think you're nuts. But not as nuts as I thought."
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I put a team together, a little over 13 months ago,
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got up to 20 some-odd people.
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We said, we're going to build a device that does what he wants.
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We have 14 out of the 21 degrees of freedom;
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you don't need the ones in the last two fingers.
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We put this thing together.
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A couple of weeks ago we took it down to Walter Reed,
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which is unfortunately more in the news these days.
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We showed it to a bunch of guys.
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One guy who described himself as being lucky,
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because he lost his left arm, and he's a righty.
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He sat at a table with seven or eight of these other guys.
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Said he was lucky, because he had his good arm,
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and then he pushed himself back from the table. He had no legs.
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These kids have attitudes that you just can't believe.
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So I'm going to show you now, without the skin on it,
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a 30-second piece, and then I'm done.
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But understand what you're looking at
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we made small enough to fit on a 50th percentile female,
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so that we could put it in any of these people.
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It's going to go inside something that we use in CAT scans and
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MRIs of whatever is their good arm,
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to make silicon rubber, then coat it, and paint it in 3D --
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exact mirror image of their other limb.
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So, you won't see all the really cool stuff that's in this series elastic set of 14 actuators,
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each one which has its own capability to sense temperature and pressure.
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It also has a pneumatic cuff that holds it on,
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so the more they put themselves under load, the more it attaches.
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They take the load off, and it becomes, again, compliant.
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I'm going to show you a guy doing a couple of simple things with this
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that we demonstrated in Washington. Can we look at this thing?
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Watch the fingers grab. The thumb comes up. Wrist.
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This weighs 6.9 pounds.
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Going to scratch his nose.
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It's got 14 active degrees of freedom.
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Now he's going to pick up a pen with his opposed thumb and index finger.
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Now he's going to put that down, pick up a piece of paper,
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rotate all the degrees of freedom in his hand and wrist, and read it.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dean Kamen - InventorDean Kamen landed in the limelight with the Segway, but he has been innovating since high school, with more than 150 patents under his belt. Recent projects include portable energy and water purification for the developing world, and a prosthetic arm for maimed soldiers.
Why you should listen
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 (Stephen Colbert took one for a spin).
Yes, he's a college dropout, but he's a huge believer in education, and in 1989 established the nonprofit FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) to inspire teenagers to pursue careers in science. FIRST sponsors lively annual competitions, where students form teams to create the best robot.
His focus now is on off-grid electricity and water purification for developing countries; another recent project, previewed at TED2007, is a prosthetic arm for maimed soldiers (read an update here). He's also working on a power source for the wonderful Think car. And, with more funding in the works, we haven't seen the last of the Segway.
Dean Kamen | Speaker | TED.com