Imagining a bionic future

Imagining a bionic future

Prosthetics advanceResearch has yielded innovations such as thought-controlled arms and

Tues., Nov. 27, 2007

When Paul Selmer lost his right leg below the knee in a hunting accident, a doctor fitted him with a standard prosthesis that required a waist belt to swing the wooden foot with each step. Selmer remembers it feeling like a “sandbag.” ...

In February 2006 the Defense Research Advancement Projects Agency, or DARPA, committed close to $50 million to the improvement of prosthetic limbs. At the time, 387 soldiers had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan as amputees. As of October 2007, that number reached 751.