Iván Moreno Plaza: MIGLOBAL and the Limits of Imagination

James Young and the bionic arm

James Young is a scientist specializing in biology that, due to an unfortunate train accident lost his left arm four years ago. After the incident, he passed through an intervention that seems to come out of a sci-fi story to recover what he lost. Instead of living his entire live using traditional prosthesis, James Young decided to make himself a bionic being, and now he has a robotic arm. 

Today, MIGLOBAL continues with the presentation of great technologies and new advances in the creation of robotic prosthesis in the health field for you to be on date about what is looks like a futuristic reality.

Alternative Limb Project, a team of experts in the field that includes 3D designers, electronic specialists, engineers in mechanical and robotics, as well as specialized designers in GTR, which is a company that builds parts carbon fiber for Formula 1 and aerospace projects), helped James to create his new arm, a unique piece in its kind. However, concreting this design was not an easy task.

Sophie de Oliveira Barata, creator of this group, began her career working on special effects for Hollywood movies; she said this has been the most challenging proposal to date, so it took a total of eleven members of the team to make it a reality. The result is a functional piece of high technology, inspired by the James’s favorite videogame, Metal Gear Solid.

Some of the functions and other characteristics of the arm

The bionic arm includes a removable panel on the shoulder, with small magnets capable of holding small objects such as a camera or phone, which can also be recharged by an attachment in the member. It also has: 

• heart monitor,
• USB port,
• torch,
• laser,
• a quadcopter drone,
• and a small screen with Bluetooth capabilities, where the user can receive e-mails, calls, messages and notifications from social networks.

Equipment upgrades will always be just on hand, since the possibilities for an arm of this type are endless and, although the arm has LED lights that run through it, Young continues to propose ideas and gadgets for his arm that can be generated by impressions in three dimensions.

'Metal Gear Solid'-inspired prosthetic limb sends e-mail and charges phones