The March of Technology

vitus979 writes: "Sorry for the bad pun, The New York Times (free reg. required) has a very interesting article on the next generation of computerized prosthetic legs. Just like any other cutting edge tech though it's not cheap, weighing in at between $40,000-$50,000 USD. Next stop, full cyberlimbs. :)"

Gadget

[karlbowden]

Go go gadget springy leg thingys.

More and more affordable

[goldspider]

"Just like any other cutting edge tech though it's not cheap, weighing in at between $40,000-$50,000 USD."

Considering how expensive these things were less than 30 years ago, $40k isn't bad! Just think, a similar setup cost Steve Austin [scifi.com] a good part of $6 Million!

Seriously, though, I'm kind of surprised NY Times didn't include a link [ottobockus.com] to Otto Bock's website for more info.

What I'm wondering...

[Stone Rhino]

Is if they would have written the story had this guy not been in the WTC on 9/11.

Is this a Segway commercial?

[cperciva]

Reading this story, I really have to wonder if it's about to be followed by a story about people who switched to riding Segways around, thereby saving $40,000.

Better than segway.

[zantrox]

Have you ever seen the segway ads advertising the ability to go up stairs? They don't, and that's because they cannot scale stairs. If they could, it would be well-mentioned. As it exists, it is a inferior wheelchair because you must a) stand up, and b) it's expensive, and c) it cannot be used it runs out of power, bogging you down.

Now legs are what can solve this. They are much more natural in a non-flat environment.

Micro$oft V1.0

[fordboy0]

Let's just hope that the software to drive 'em becomes open source... It would be a shame to have a pair of legs that crash (pardon the pun-ism) and have to be rebooted (damn... another one) a couple of times a day. Kind of a new definition for "downtime" wouldn't you say? I guess if you mated this product with the Segway you could call it the Legway. Must be the late nite at the office causing all the witless humor!

I want Tetsuo's cyber-arm

[MagikSlinger]

Made out of scrap, and goes out of control trying to mate with everything. Kind of like Microsoft Windows Hardware Detection.