$75K Prosthetic Arm Is Bricked When Paired iPod Is Stolen 194
kdataman writes U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Ben Eberle, who lost an arm and both legs in Afghanistan, had his Ipod Touch stolen on Friday. This particular Ipod Touch has an app on it that controls his $75,000 prosthetic arm. The robbery bricked his prosthesis: "That is because Eberle's prosthetic hand is programmed to only work with the stolen iPod, and vice versa. Now that the iPod is gone, he said he has to get a new hand and get it reprogrammed with his prosthesis." I see three possibilities: 1) The article is wrong, possibly to guilt the thief into returning the Ipod. 2) This is an incredibly bad design by Touch Bionics. Why would you make a $70,000 piece of equipment permanently dependent on a specific Ipod Touch? Ipods do fail or go missing. 3) This is an intentionally bad design to generate revenue. Maybe GM should do this with car keys? "Oops, lost the keys to the corvette. Better buy a new one."
I see three possibilities (Score:2, Informative)
Who?
The guy in the article?
The article?
The editor?
The submitter?
At least start a new paragraph..
Re:I see three possibilities (Score:5, Interesting)
I am the submitter and the layout of the original submission was much different with a new paragraph there.
Re:I see three possibilities (Score:5, Funny)
You should have gone with a more reputable news aggregation service like FARK or 4chan. Their editors are top notch compared to Slashdot.
Re:I see three possibilities (Score:5, Funny)
the iPod has an ARM processor.
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On Fark or 4chan, This one [aaib.gov.uk] sounds more like their material...
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Re:I see three possibilities (Score:4, Funny)
So what you are saying is that Timmothy not only fails to edit most posts that need it. He goes above and beyond by editing posts at times to make them even crappier?
You must be new here...
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See the original submission before it got edited for the worse...
http://science.slashdot.org/su... [slashdot.org]
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The perp is regretting stealing the ipod, after he realises he'll need to buy a $70,000 prosthetic arm to go with it...
You've gotta hand it to him though. (Score:5, Funny)
He'll be right. He is from the ARMy after all.
Re:You've gotta hand it to him though. (Score:5, Funny)
Some people really are willing to pay an arm and a leg for their Apple products.
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It's appropriate that they chose a device with arm processor to pair with these prosthetic.
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I don't know, but the iPod touch runs on ARM.
Hmmm ... (Score:5, Informative)
You know, given the terrible kind of software we see in embedded software, and the terrible security implemented by most companies ... I'm perfectly willing to believe this is an incredibly bad design, because there's plenty of evidence that these kinds of things tend to have incredibly bad designs.
Between companies using 10 year old Linux kernels, to having unpatchable systems, or just having really bad understandings of security, I've come to conclude this is the norm.
Re:Hmmm ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hmmm ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is that bad design? It allows access to the system again, but in a way that makes it pretty fecking obvious access has been gained - thats how I would like it to be handled rather than the alternatives of never gaining access or gaining unfettered access with all data in place and no one being aware access was gained.
Re:Hmmm ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. Especially when the reset to factory requires physical presence. In most cases it is exactly the right thing.
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If he would only read the manual, you only have to pull the thumb and bend the elbow for 3 seconds to put it in pairing mode.
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Unfortunately, the sole copy of the manual exists as an app that only works with that particular iPod Touch.
Re:Hmmm ... (Score:4, Funny)
No, that's not right. You have to pull the finger. I'll show you. Pull my finger.
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If only there were some sort of software that would backup your Ipod and it's data including the music. We could call it I touch music or maybe Itunes or something.
Oh, please. You really never heard of software (hey, Microsoft Office, your ears burning?) which locks itself to the serial number of the CPU or equivalent hardware?
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Could you power down and act death for a few minutes? Then the devices would reset itself for the next owner.
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Except the terribly bad design we typically see in embedded design is normally to provide a back-door way to prevent just this kind of problem. "Oh, you lost your password? No problem, hold down these three buttons and cycle power and it'll reset everything to factory defaults, and then you can login with this default password."
You mean someone could steel my private prosthetic arm data?!?!?! Eegads!!!
Re:Hmmm ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hmmm ... (Score:5, Funny)
$70k is the standard repair fee for prosthetics not covered under an Applecare agreement.
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Between companies using 10 year old Linux kernels, to having unpatchable systems, or just having really bad understandings of security, I've come to conclude this is the norm.
... and a hacked prosthetic arm is the worst possible kind of security breach -- the hackers could literally hold your neck for ransom.
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Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! Pay me $10,000 to stop hitting yourself.
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I'd show up at the companies headquarters, use my prosthetic fist to punch the CEO in the face repeatedly, and then say "I think it's a bug in your software. No? Show me the source and prove it... otherwise I think this bug will continue to afflict us both"
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You know, given the terrible kind of software we see in embedded software, and the terrible security implemented by most companies ... I'm perfectly willing to believe this is an incredibly bad design, because there's plenty of evidence that these kinds of things tend to have incredibly bad designs.
Between companies using 10 year old Linux kernels, to having unpatchable systems, or just having really bad understandings of security, I've come to conclude this is the norm.
there's the old horror trope about the guy who gets a transplanted hand, and the hand comes alive on its own and tries to choke him. maybe it's time for the same thing but with a robot hand.
also, having not read the article i do not get the issue here. cant they just put the app on a different ipod? did they destroy the source code? if the firmware in the hand is somehow tied to the serial number of the ipod, cant they reprogram the firm ware? this whole thing stinks of a greedy govt contractor.
Re: Hmmm ... (Score:4, Informative)
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Bollox. Bad design is built in on purpose. Some manager or above explicitly told the programmer to build that dependency in. Been there, done that, fought against it and was categorically told do it or lose my job.
Never assume a skilled professional makes a terrible decision. It has to be coded and someone makes that call above a programmer's pay-grade.
I'd say it's more likely that some manager told their programmer to make absolutely sure that no other iPod than his could possibly control his prosthetics t
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Still, there has to be some kind of mechanism to do the initial pairing, even if this requires removing a PCB and hooking it up to the diag/programming equipment they have at the factory. Even counting a few hours of engineers time, it would be much much less that 70k.
Bad Planning (Score:5, Insightful)
What if the ipod was dropped and breaks? What kind of poor planning is this where that one ipod was the linchpin of this expensive prosthetic?
Re:Bad Planning (Score:4, Interesting)
The government foots the bill as these are mostly used by war veterans, so for the manufacturer, it's another unit sold?
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Re:Bad Planning (Score:4, Informative)
Last time I checked, the government doesn't earn money. Taxpayers do.
Well, you know what they say:
For those who cannot print money,
earning is the next best option.
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Except, the system is setup to prevent the government from printing money directly for their own use.
Lets not forget how it works, the semi-independent federal reserve prints the money and then offers it out as no recourse loans to their industry cronies (or whoever is a most convininet front...like their wives: http://www.rollingstone.com/po... [rollingstone.com] )
Then, those people, now with money in hand that they only have to pay back if they make a profit, they loan it to everyone else, with interest.
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So not with their own money, but still the government pays for it.
Re:Bad Planning (Score:4, Informative)
There are reasons to discourage that, and have them focus on things that the private sector can't do or does poorly; but those are pragmatic considerations, not fundamental obstacles.
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Case in point right here in my home state of Virginia: The state's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control stores (commonly called "ABC stores"). As part of the state's alcohol laws, licensed stores can sell wine and beer, and licensed bars and restaurants can sell booze by the glass. If you want hard liquor by the bottle, you have to buy it at an ABC store, which are state-owned. They turn a profit, and that profit goes into the state's coffers.
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The top 1% don't earn money either, they merely collect it. And yet that cash spends just as easily (even more easily, some might say) as someone who worked for the money.
Government can and do earn money (Score:2)
Last time I checked, the government doesn't earn money.
Not even remotely true. Governments are perfectly capable of earning money when they choose to. Governments can and do own things and can behave very much like private businesses if they want to. In China and Egypt and Russia (and many more) have huge swaths of the private economy are outright owned by the government. The fact that the US government generally refrains from trying to make a profit and behaving like a private enterprise doesn't mean they cannot or do not. For a time in the very recent pa
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"Some do and some do not. People who stay home to raise children often do not earn any money. "
Then they aren't taxpayers, are they?
Everyone is a taxpayer (Score:2, Informative)
Then they aren't taxpayers, are they?
Sure they are. I assure you that the priest who is fully supported by his congregation is taxed on his "earnings". A housewife still has to file and is responsible for the taxes on the spouses income even if they had no role in actually earning it. All those people still pay sales, use, gasoline, excise, etc taxes. It's essentially impossible to not be a taxpayer on some level.
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The government, at all levels, does earn some money in the form of usage fees such as national/state parks or land they lease to ranchers.
It's no different than paying money to rent out a place for your wedding.
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Not to mention the US Postal Service which doesn't get taxpayer money and needs to earn its own money to cover operating expenses.
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Not that you're a flaming ideologue or anything. ::reads your signature::
Oh, you are. Well, things always seem simple to people with a religion to push.
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Except they do http://www.forbes.com/sites/je... [forbes.com] ... even if they shouldn't.
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If true, it is no longer the case with new devices (Score:5, Informative)
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at least for the newer devices, all you need to do is enter the "serial number" of the hand into the app and it can control it.
Gawd .. whats worse: Bad security or No security?
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This is security through obscurity, until the arm sends his serial number over bluetooth or something.
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No, no it's not security through obscurity. It's security through something you know - a perfectly valid method of securing something. Of course, it would be nice if in this case, you could change the thing you're supposed to know to be different to the device's serial number.
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I dunno; if the serial number is emitted over bluetooth, or guessable/brute-forceable, a range of 100 feet may mean dozens of people in which one troll may lurk, waiting to make your prosthetic go all Dr. Strangelove on you.
I'm not seeing the security here, other than the comparatively small attack space.
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Apple removed the ability for iOS apps to read the iPhone's / iPad's / iPod's device id with iOS 7, which means any software that relied on that would no longer work.
Does the prosthetic co make you buy there ipad? (Score:2)
Does the prosthetic co make you buy there ipad? if so they can sell ones that are the basic model jailbreak by them for say $1000 with there apps pre loaded. Also the paper work calls the ipad an medical device
From the summary (Score:2)
Prosthetic arm hacking FTW (Score:2)
Possibility 4) Hardlinking to a specific iPod makes it harder to hack the prosthetic arm from.
It's not the perfect way to prevent hacking, but I can certainly see why this could be considered a security feature that benefits the owner of the arm.
Would you rather have a prosthetic arm that does nothing or one that is controlled by some pubescent scriptkiddie?
Re:Prosthetic arm hacking FTW (Score:4, Insightful)
Possibility 4) Hardlinking to a specific iPod makes it harder to hack the prosthetic arm from.
Bricking a device because a external independent device which is well known to be fragile and/or a target of theft has died/lost/stolen is a pretty bad design.
And if the external device is not independent, but is in fact required part of the bricked devices operation - then that is also bad design
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It may be bad design in hindsight, but in the real world every design has concessions.
Integrating the required hardware in the arm itself might have had downsides worse than relying on an external tried and tested commodity device.
It might be as simple as optimizing space, shape and weight, preventing heating or cost savings.
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How would you hardwire it anyway? I highly doubt the iPod hardware is modified. So that means there is some kind of security token on the iPod. But the iTunes/iCloud backup should backup any application data. This should be secure AND allow recovery in the case of loss.
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Again, I'm not defending this as a good design choice, just as one I can imagine a person making for valid reasons.
I'm assuming the iPod hardware has some sort of unique identification baked into the hardware.
Recovery in case of loss is certainly possible; TFS states the arm can be reprogrammed for a new device.
Recovery from inside the app would make hacking easier, even if (limited) physical interaction with the arm is needed.
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Perhaps, but its hard to see how linking it to a hardware ID is especially secure. A hardware ID is probably just a sequential number, whereas a proper security token would be an encryption key.
Could Be Worse (Score:5, Funny)
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Big brothers everywhere: "Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!"
Security (Score:4, Interesting)
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Right now, it seems like everything is either "Oh, totally wide open, mayb
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i-limb software (Score:2, Informative)
According to the user manual for i-limb,
To make changes to the limb, it either requires loading the software on a pc with blue-tooth or getting an ipod touch setup by i-limb.
Not a $75,000 loss by any means, sounds like the factory has to set up the ipod touch though. It is a pain in the rump, but most robberies are.
does i-limb make you use them so they can bill (Score:2)
does i-limb make you use them so they can bill the VA, medicare disability, ETC say $200-$500 to pair an bluetooth device?
Point out the obvious (Score:2, Funny)
Shouldn't the app be an Android app?
Hmmmm?
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When you have medicare and or the VA paying then you can take a more useful / cheaper Android or you can buy a higher cost apple and get more markup out of it also makeing so that the end user can't buy there own and pair it on there own makes you use them for Replacement when it hits the end of it's battery life.
If only we had an better healthcare system that was not loaded with insane markup.
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Bad UX, possibly good security (Score:2)
While it's easy for me to see this as a bad design, it's also not much of a stretch to believe that this was a conscious choice. After all, if it were trivially easy to pair a wireless device with the prosthetic, it would be trivially easy to take control of the guy's hand (think "Stop hitting yourself!").
Is this bad for the user experience, particularly given it's predicated on an easily lost, easily broken, and frequently stolen device? Certainly. Is the UX of the lost/stolen device better than the UX of
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While it's easy for me to see this as a bad design, it's also not much of a stretch to believe that this was a conscious choice. After all, if it were trivially easy to pair a wireless device with the prosthetic, it would be trivially easy to take control of the guy's hand (think "Stop hitting yourself!").
All you need to do is to not pair the arm with the specific iPhone, but to pair it with the AppleID of the user of the iPhone. Which is from a software development point of view ten times easier and absolutely safe. It is much easier to steal an iPhone than an AppleID.
At least (Score:2)
Or number 4... (Score:2)
4. It's a security feature ( a bad one maybe but still) and it doesn't cost $75k to get it re-authenticated.
You've never lost your keys, have you? (Score:2)
After getting a quote from the dealers to get a lost key replaced for all three cars on my keyring (which dissappeared), I wondered if it wouldn't just be cheaper to have the cars towed away and re-buy new ones. (The prices ranged from $150-$275 EACH to have them replaced)
Re:You've never lost your keys, have you? (Score:4, Funny)
Hi, I'm a volunteer for The Math Foundation, the non-profit devoted to helping everyday people do math, because Math Is Hard(tm). After careful calculations, I have concluded that replacing all of your keys via the dealerships costs more than two orders of magnitude less than purchasing a new set of cars, which means you could purchase over 100 cars for the cost of a set of keys, on average. You can now safely take the "new keys" option with the assurance that it is the wiser financial path between the two, and you no longer have to lie awake at night wondering whether or not the "new cars" option would be cheaper.
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Hi, I'm a volunteer for the Poetic License bureau, and we'd like to inform you that you've violated rule #8; taking something too literally when an obvious point is being made.
You're welcome.
Why'd he leave the iPod Touch in his truck though? (Score:3)
Does it seem odd to anyone else that he'd be fine with leaving the device in his truck's center console overnight that's required to make use of one of his arms?
"Pretty sure I won't come up with ANY need to use my other arm for the rest of the night.... Maybe I'll go fetch the controller tomorrow?"
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The iPod touch has a limited battery life... Though you'd hope it shares power source with the arm.
Lack of backup (Score:2)
"[Getting a new prosthetic hand and iPod configured to work together] takes a long time," Eberle told the San Antonio Express-News. "It's tedious and it's a lot of work with the hand itself."
So in fact, another ipod could work, but it has to be trained first. A good backup of the training data should allow a new ipod to be set up quickly, but it sounds like they didn't do that.
Probably an incredible design (Score:3)
The software detects weak signals from damaged nerves to usefully move fingers of the prostetic arm. This is no floppy bird. There was probably an incredible amount of difficulty to get the thing working in the first place and the issue of backup was left for later. One day these things would be both modular and not cost $70k.
My dog will explode (Score:3)
Strange software design (Score:4, Insightful)
The prosthesis can easily be paired to an AppleID plus an application specific ID. However, all information about this would be stored on the device, backed up to iTunes, and could be restored by just buying a new phone, entering the AppleID and password, and downloading the last backup.
If that doesn't work, then these guys must have some really strange and stupid software design + implementation.
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Apple doesn't allow access to UDIDs (universal device identifiers) anymore, so unless the software is quite old, or requires a jailbroken device, the prosthesis cannot be paired to the device. (That's one of the reason why you can't access the UDID anymore, because pairing information with a device is stupid; the bigger reason is privacy).
The prosthesis can easily be paired to an AppleID plus an application specific ID. However, all information about this would be stored on the device, backed up to iTunes, and could be restored by just buying a new phone, entering the AppleID and password, and downloading the last backup.
If that doesn't work, then these guys must have some really strange and stupid software design + implementation.
Any app writer can include their own magic number in the instance on the device and use that for pairing.
Re:$75,000 for a prosthetic arm? (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously, they charge an arm and a leg for prosthetic limbs!
=Smidge=
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Or pay 3x restitution on the retail value of the item stolen, and subject the engineer who designed such a foolish interface requirement to the 100 lashes and year of hard labor. That would seem a great deal more in line with the crime here.
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Apple has spent a Lot of money designing iDevices and perfecting them over multiple generations. Hard to say how much; but it's a large number. Conveniently for you, they'll sell 'em to you in quantities of 1 for a only a modest premium over production cost.
In an ideal world, the prosthesis would require no 'interface' at all(your ar
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I know people that have far more than $75k worth of data sitting on their home PCs with no backup.
Incompetent engineers (Score:3)
I'm not familiar with the device, but the engineer in me want's to believe that no one would design a system with such an obvious weakness.
I run a company that makes wiring harnesses and I am an engineer (as well as an accountant) myself. I assure you that there are a LOT of idiots who would would design such a stupid system. I get to deal with some of them on a semi-regular basis.
We like to pretend here on slashdot that engineers are universally good at their job and always do quality work but I have several file cabinets full of evidence 10 feet from where I sit that proves that too many engineers are monumentally incompetent idiots. On
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It was intentionally coupled to a specific device for legal/liability reasons related to medical devices.
Pairing to a specific device is stupid. For example, Apple gives you a one year warranty, but they don't guarantee that you ever get your device back, repaired. So if through Apple's fault your phone breaks one week after you spent $70K, then Apple will happily provide you with a brand new, _different_ phone. And that's common sense and what everyone else does, and nobody complains about it - because pairing with a specific device is stupid.
Out of phone warranty, an iPhone doesn't last forever. Quite pos
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People who didn't want their car stolen again asked for that feature. Feel lucky that you didn't have need of it before it existed.