We’re lucky to live in the age of Dean Kamen.
Luke: Dean Kamen's wonderful prosthetic robot arm
We’re lucky to live in the age of Dean Kamen.
We’re lucky to live in the age of Dean Kamen.
We’re lucky to live in the age of Dean Kamen.
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Don Schenck
on 30 May 08Last night I watched a demo of Cisco’s holographic meeting system (amazing!), and today this.
Wow.
Thanks for this post, Jason.
Paul M. Watson
on 30 May 08Incredible. When you see projects like that you look down at your Twitter/Facebook/Basecamp/iGoogle clone and feel just a wee bit pointless. You can get satisfaction from small things but one can wonder about doing meaningful things.
Walt Ribeiro
on 30 May 08this is amazing
Mimo
on 30 May 08The 6 Million Dollar man. Well. This is great.
GeeIWonder
on 30 May 08Kamen’s done some amazing stuff, and if profits from the two wheel three wheel scooter help fund this and walking wheelchairs, that’s great.
But I think the problem here might be production and, as noted essentially calibration to each individual. It’s a fantastic piece of technology, that may well be impossible to deploy in the kind of numbers (and rates) needed. Kamen’s own comments certainly recognize this, much to his credit.
I fear it’s really a technology ‘solution’ to one, or many non-technological problem.
Do you really think the same government that balked when getting body and vehicle armor and is now getting upset about sending vets to college are going to go around buying $100K+ arms?
Daniel Holter
on 30 May 08Wow, wow, wow. What a time to be alive!
Thanks for the video.
Matt Radel
on 30 May 08Holy friggin’ crap! That is amazing. Can you imagine where they’ll be in 5-10 years?! It is really exciting. Thanks for sharing!
J
on 30 May 08Geel, Kamen invented the first insulin pump, a portable kidney dialysis machine, a heart stent, and the iBot transporter (the wheelchair) before he invented the Segway.
He’s improved the quality of life for so many people.
Many of his inventions had “production problems” before they were perfected. That’s invention. You have to crawl before you can walk.
God bless Dean Kamen for having the courage to crawl.
Sarah
on 30 May 08And next, The Terminator. Fantastic.
JF
on 30 May 08And don’t forget Kamen’s Vapor Compression Distiller using the Sterling engine.
leethal
on 30 May 08Truly awesome!
Don Schenck
on 30 May 08@GeeIWonder: Think bigger, dream bigger. Don’t pigeonhole tomorrow’s thinking into today’s.
That little computer in front of you was once an impossible dream.
GeeIWonder
on 30 May 08@J Absolutely. I’m well aware of Kamen’s work, and agree with you too Don. As my partners and colleagues are all too aware, I dream big.
But there’s a long history of people finding nails everywhere while wielding a big technology hammer. It’s been used suggestively more than one to mollify the masses and soften the blow of otherwise unacceptable policies.
My ‘impossible dream’ for a society generating massive amounts of people with missing limbs doesn’t have much to do with technology.
cesar
on 30 May 08Dean Kamen is one the greatest minds in out times. people should look after him and care less about “celebrities”. He is the Man!
Peter Urban
on 30 May 08Phenomenal.
someone
on 31 May 08My jaw literally dropped at 3:09.
Anonymous Coward
on 31 May 08ddfd
Ole Begemann
on 31 May 08I”t’s made out of unobtainium” – LOL
GeeIWonder
on 31 May 08Classic engineering joke. ;) You get that stuff at the same store as frictionless surfaces.
Paul Clarkson
on 31 May 08That is amazing. Maybe next Kamen could start work on a mechanical soul to be implanted in the zombie corporate shill motherfuckers who start illegal wars and send decent people off to have their arms and legs blown off. You know, start at the root cause of the problem.
End is here
on 01 Jun 08How dangerous can this be. With electronic that we can so precisely control and yet can somehow lose control of it, will it signal the beginning of the machine war. I hope only sensible beings can hold of this arms and not those with angst. Or else god knows what evil they can do with it. If we lose control of the electronic, this thing can kill or hurt fresh and blood.
Wise Owl
on 01 Jun 08It’s striking.I am really impressed.Human’s dreams are turning into reality…
N
on 02 Jun 08If it’s made of unobtainium, it’s probably lubricated with elbow-grease – you can also get it at the store that Geel gets his frictionless surfaces from.
Scott Boone
on 02 Jun 08The most impressive thing about this video to me, even more so than the amazing technology, even more than Kamen’s enthusiasm (which brands him as a true innovator of the highest caliber), is the fact that as the video ends, Kamen’s eyes are welled up and red…the man was emotionally affected rewatching the events. That, my friends, is the kind of man Dean Kamen is, the kind that depressingly so few engineers can say they are.
GeeIWonder
on 02 Jun 08@Scott kind that depressingly so few engineers can say they are.
First of all, saying you’re something and being it are completely different things.
Second of all, if you’re going to make sweeping statements about people based on job titles, professional designation, degree or I don’t what else you mean by engineers, you need to back it up with some reference.
This was a DARPA project with which Kamen is involved. The nerve regeneration work is derived from this guy’s work. There’s a lot of other good people (including, for instance, these guys) involved too.
I’m not sure where such an unfair view comes from, but it’s basically baloney in my experience.
This discussion is closed.