Hugh Herr, director of MIT's biomechatronics group, just unveiled the world's most advanced prosthetic ankle.
It came as quite a surprise. Herr's presentation began with the Rheoknee, modeled by Rudy Garcia, a young man with both legs amputated above the knee. The Rheoknee -- an unobtrusive, rounded blue cylinder packed full of processing power that controls the metal scaffold below -- allows him to move at different speeds without discomfort. Garcia is currently training for the Iron Man triathlon.
Then Herr mentioned a program now ongoing at MIT to develop the world's first human-machine bionic hybrid.
After that, he showed a video of a man with one amputated leg walking fast and casually on a prosthesis -- one which mimicked the behavior of a real ankle, pushing back against the ground, carrying its own weight.
Unfortunately, the computers and generators needed to run the ankle needed to be housed in a separate backpack, connected to the ankle by a bundle of cables.
"That's the world's strongest, most powerful ankle," said Herr. For the last few months, he said, his group has been trying to pack the backpack worth of hardware into the prosthetic itself.
Then Herr stepped back and rolled up his pants leg.
After he finished walking around the stage, a small asymmetry in his gait was visible. Why? He rolled up his other pant leg, revealing his other prosthetic ankle.
Sorry about the blurry pictures. Herr caught me -- and everyone -- by surprise.
Read more about Herr and bionics in our Wired News bionics series from September 2006.
