Dean Kamen on The Colbert Report (April 5th, 2010)

[Isaac501]

http://www.colbertnation.com/full-ep...010-dean-kamen

That's the link to last night's episode. Fully awesome!!!

[sircedric4]

Originally Posted by Isaac501

http://www.colbertnation.com/full-ep...010-dean-kamen

That's the link to last night's episode. Fully awesome!!!

It starts after the third white increment and timestamp 16:06 if you don't want to sit through the whole show and it's extra long web commercials.

[Akash Rastogi]

If anyone can make a real lightsaber....its gotta be Dean and DEKA

[synth3tk]

lol, I'm two hours late to posting the link. But yes, visit the link Isaac501 posted.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by sircedric4

It starts after the third white increment and timestamp 16:06 if you don't want to sit through the whole show and it's extra long web commercials.

What do you mean "don't want to sit through the whole show"? The Colbert Report rocks!

[ras103]

That man could pick up a grape AND use chopsticks. Dean is amazing, denim and all! Also, he presented himself so well, this was a great outlet to spread the word about FIRST and robotics. Good Job Dean, and Colbert for that matter, high five!

[DinerKid]

It was an awesome interview. I have to say, CHOPSTICKS i was in aw. It was hilarious when Dean was talking and the arm twitches and he looked at the arm nervously. It reminded me a little bit of the guy from Spiderman with the robotics arms.

~DK

[qzrrbz]

OK -- time to ask the obligatory engineering question! How the heck was he *controlling* that thing??? :-)

He had a series of objects strung across his back (one would think battery and cRio :-) ), but where are the fine motor control input devices? And for a double version of this arm, wow... How is the wearer to control that?

That, to me, was the neatest part of the interview! The "how the ... is he doing this" part!

[qzrrbz]

OK^2

After reviewing the tape again a few times, it is beautifully subtle. He has "something" in his real left hand. Reminds me of a ventriloquist a bit - the dummy/arm commands your attention, and his lips/fingers barely move while he talks/articulates the arm.

Beautiful.

But, I'm still wondering about control for a pair of these!

[DonRotolo]

From an article I read somewhere recently (I think IEEE Spectrum magazine) the control system uses the wearer's actual nerve impulses for control.

Amputees generally have "phantom limb syndrome", where they can still "feel" their missing limb. Doctors find the nerve endings , connect to them electrically, and have the wearer move their "limb" - "bend at the elbow a little. Now a lot", and so on. They map the electrical impulses they get from the nerves to arm functions...and the wearer controls the arm with the same thoughts/impulses as they used to with their real limb.

Makes me want to get into biomedical engineering. The problems in human interfacing, noise management and amplification are fascinating, the arm mechanicals themselves notwithstanding.

I had one class in Biomedical - it was interesting, but a 3-credit undergrad elective barely scratched the surface (and, it was 30 years ago...). Wish I had the finances to change careers. (Maybe in my spare time in the basement?)

[Bill_B]

This year's FLL challenge is entitled Body Forward. Undoubtedly related to the amazing device shown on colbear repore. If think that prosthetic machine is awesome and you'd like to delve into the topic some more, you should check in with a local FLL team and offer to mentor for the research aspect of this subject.

[Radical Pi]

Originally Posted by qzrrbz

OK -- time to ask the obligatory engineering question! How the heck was he *controlling* that thing??? :-)

He had a series of objects strung across his back (one would think battery and cRio :-) ), but where are the fine motor control input devices? And for a double version of this arm, wow... How is the wearer to control that?

That, to me, was the neatest part of the interview! The "how the ... is he doing this" part!

According to a 60 minutes piece on the arm, there are sensors in the shoe for controlling it, but it is a year old so I wouldn't be surprised if they got to nerve control by now

[sircedric4]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

What do you mean "don't want to sit through the whole show"? The Colbert Report rocks!

Some of us don't necessarily have broadband or are sneaking a view from work or some other place and may want to skip straight to the relevant part. :-)