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Sounds like they are actually just implementing myoelectric prosthetics. Note that that is measuring muscle signals, not nerve signals. Similar technology has been used for subvocalized speech recognition

There have been prosthetics based on measuring signals from the spinal column or peripheral nerves, but they usually still use implanted electrodes because nerve signals are much weaker than myoelectric signals.

I've read nearly all of the comments thus far, and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in the general lack of clue. I have had a prosthetic right leg for going on 13 years now. This is my third model.

The first was pretty much carbon-fibre, carbon-carbon, and titanium. The foot provided a bit of energy return to simulate the toe-push on pronation, but was not like the real thing.

The second foot added an articulated ankle which aided on uneven terrain, but was still not very lifelike.

The third has similar foot to the first, but added a shock-absorber and a vacuum system. Although this leg has some of the best of the current technology, at the end of the day, it sucks. [1]

Understand that I can walk pretty well. Most days, or when I'm not tired from walking all day long, my gait is indistinguishable from other folks. However, even though my 'foot' does provide *some* energy return, it in no way approaches the muscular push-off normal toes provide when walking. (I expect most folks don't even know or feel that they do this any longer.) Of course, I don't have one of the sprinter foots this runner will use in competition. They are specific to that function and just wouldn't work as daily 'footwear'.

All of that is immaterial. His feet don't 'give him way more energy' than a naturally footed sprinter. They can't. The only energy they store is that which is put there by the runner. I haven't studied his running style, but I expect that he has modified his style to maximize the energy put into the foot, and that the foot unloads the energy back into his lower leg on rolling off of the toe. Now, this is unnatural and required a great deal of training before he mastered it well enough to beat footed sprinters. I call bullshit on the IAAF.

That energy is not 'free'. He's had to train to get more fit than footed runners because his gait will not be a natural bone/muscle gait.

Oh, yeah, aerodynamics my ass...

[1] Compared to a real foot.

I have an artificial leg for the last 11 years. (It was amputated when I was 12 because of bone cancer.) Talking to the doctor when He was fitting me for my newest model, I learned that development is speeding up again because of more income. Insurance companies are afraid to say "no" to more technically sophisticated (read expensive) artificial limbs with all of the returning soldiers. Insurance companies either get overly stingy or give too much. It's during periods like this that I should get a new model made.

I am happy with my handy dandy new cleg. I just wish I didn't get the feeling that I have to out think the CPU sometimes. It's taken about 8 months to not walk like a total retard, but I still haven't gotten to the point where people don't look at me funny. On the bright side, I can do roller blading and ice skating with this knee. That is a great way to pick up chicks along with my sexy leopard print socket.

Neurologically this is kind of interesting and even somewhat cool. About 9 months after my leg was amputated I was out working in my yard clearing a drain during a rainstorm. I was standing in water up to mid calf and my right foot started to get cold because it was soaking wet. I kept mucking out the drain and then I noticed that my left foot, which is actually a cunningly crafted bit of carbon fiber from the folks at Otto Bock felt cold and wet too. It was the damnedest thing and it made me stop for a moment, it felt as if I had a left foot that was in a cold, thoroughly soaking wet sock inside of a thoroughly soaking wet boot. I finished mucking out the drain, went inside, changed into dry clothes and stuck my right foot into a tub of warm water. As my right foot warmed the sensation in my left foot gradually decreased. If I am wearing my prosthesis phantom limb pains feel as if they are coming from the ankle and/or foot of my left leg, if I'm not wearing the prosthesis they feel as if they are coming from the stump. Amputation, the gift that keeps on giving.

Neurologically this is kind of interesting and even somewhat cool. About 9 months after my leg was amputated I was out working in my yard clearing a drain during a rainstorm. I was standing in water up to mid calf and my right foot started to get cold because it was soaking wet. I kept mucking out the drain and then I noticed that my left foot, which is actually a cunningly crafted bit of carbon fiber from the folks at Otto Bock felt cold and wet too. It was the damnedest thing and it made me stop for a moment, it felt as if I had a left foot that was in a cold, thoroughly soaking wet sock inside of a thoroughly soaking wet boot. I finished mucking out the drain, went inside, changed into dry clothes and stuck my right foot into a tub of warm water. As my right foot warmed the sensation in my left foot gradually decreased. If I am wearing my prosthesis phantom limb pains feel as if they are coming from the ankle and/or foot of my left leg, if I'm not wearing the prosthesis they feel as if they are coming from the stump. Amputation, the gift that keeps on giving.

Mostly. A below knee prosthesis consists of three components, the socket and suspension, which holds the prosthesis onto the stump (or 'residual limb' if you want to be PC about it), the pylon, and the foot itself. There is generally a cosmetic foot that you wear with most feet, called a foot shell or foot cosmesis, this allows the foot to properly fill out a shoe. Some people also have a cosmesis fabricated to cover the socket and pylon for the leg. The problem with cosmeses is that they're expensive and they wear out quickly, so a lot of people skip them. Women are more likely than men to use a cosmesis (Heather Mills McCartney, Paul McCartney's wife, has some damned good ones) but a lot of people skip them entirely. If you're generally wearing long pants it's really not an issue. In addition you can have the carbon fiber of the socket laminated with a variety of designs, one that I saw at a prosthetics fab was a green lizard scale pattern, pretty cool.

I have an Otto Bock Luxon Max foot. Which is connected to a titanium pylon. The pylon is connected to an Otto Bock 4R86 torsion adapter which allows limited twisting motion of the socket relative to the foot.

These days most sockets are generally vacuum casted, although there are places that still make plaster molds of the stump and build off of them. A mold is taken of the stump and the resulting form is put into a 3D digitizer. The prosthetist then uses a specialized 3D CAD program (Shapemaker is one such) to adjust this for fit. This is really an art, the guy I go to is really good at it. The idea is to have the entire interior surface of the socket contacting the stump to support the weight of the patient. Despite what you might think (and what I used to think before I lost my leg) the weight of the patient is not concentrated on the end of the stump. This is called a "total surface bearing" socket and again, it's a real art to building these. Most of the problems people have with their prosthetics are due to socket fit. For some patients the prosthetist will build a series of test or 'check' sockets out of cheaper materials such as plastic or fiberglass. This allows checking the fit of the socket and is also good for patients with recent amputations who generally experience a great deal of shrinkage of their stumps in the months following their amputations.

Inside the socket you wear a silicone liner that fits over your stump, this provides protection for the skin on your stump, an important thing, especially if the stump is like mine, which is mostly skin graft. To deal with volume fluctuations during the day you pad the outside of the liner with cloth socks. Then you have a silicone sleeve that slides up over your thigh to hold the whole thing on.

The cost for a simple prostehetic like mine is about 8 grand, a lot of this is labor, getting a good socket fit and adjusting the components to fit together properly takes a lot of skill, you don't just bolt it all together and walk out of the office. The cost for a more sophisticated prosthesis, such as an above knee prosthesis using an Otto Bock C-Leg can hit 50 to 60 grand once the cost of the components and the labor of the prosthetist is figured in.

It's amazing how your life can change in a short period of time. Two and a half years ago I knew absolutely nothing about any of this. As far as cool looking, well, it's not as good as the original equipment but it beats the Hell out of being on crutches or in a wheelchair, and I guess it looks cooler than either of those alternatives.

Mostly. A below knee prosthesis consists of three components, the socket and suspension, which holds the prosthesis onto the stump (or 'residual limb' if you want to be PC about it), the pylon, and the foot itself. There is generally a cosmetic foot that you wear with most feet, called a foot shell or foot cosmesis, this allows the foot to properly fill out a shoe. Some people also have a cosmesis fabricated to cover the socket and pylon for the leg. The problem with cosmeses is that they're expensive and they wear out quickly, so a lot of people skip them. Women are more likely than men to use a cosmesis (Heather Mills McCartney, Paul McCartney's wife, has some damned good ones) but a lot of people skip them entirely. If you're generally wearing long pants it's really not an issue. In addition you can have the carbon fiber of the socket laminated with a variety of designs, one that I saw at a prosthetics fab was a green lizard scale pattern, pretty cool.

I have an Otto Bock Luxon Max foot. Which is connected to a titanium pylon. The pylon is connected to an Otto Bock 4R86 torsion adapter which allows limited twisting motion of the socket relative to the foot.

These days most sockets are generally vacuum casted, although there are places that still make plaster molds of the stump and build off of them. A mold is taken of the stump and the resulting form is put into a 3D digitizer. The prosthetist then uses a specialized 3D CAD program (Shapemaker is one such) to adjust this for fit. This is really an art, the guy I go to is really good at it. The idea is to have the entire interior surface of the socket contacting the stump to support the weight of the patient. Despite what you might think (and what I used to think before I lost my leg) the weight of the patient is not concentrated on the end of the stump. This is called a "total surface bearing" socket and again, it's a real art to building these. Most of the problems people have with their prosthetics are due to socket fit. For some patients the prosthetist will build a series of test or 'check' sockets out of cheaper materials such as plastic or fiberglass. This allows checking the fit of the socket and is also good for patients with recent amputations who generally experience a great deal of shrinkage of their stumps in the months following their amputations.

Inside the socket you wear a silicone liner that fits over your stump, this provides protection for the skin on your stump, an important thing, especially if the stump is like mine, which is mostly skin graft. To deal with volume fluctuations during the day you pad the outside of the liner with cloth socks. Then you have a silicone sleeve that slides up over your thigh to hold the whole thing on.

The cost for a simple prostehetic like mine is about 8 grand, a lot of this is labor, getting a good socket fit and adjusting the components to fit together properly takes a lot of skill, you don't just bolt it all together and walk out of the office. The cost for a more sophisticated prosthesis, such as an above knee prosthesis using an Otto Bock C-Leg can hit 50 to 60 grand once the cost of the components and the labor of the prosthetist is figured in.

It's amazing how your life can change in a short period of time. Two and a half years ago I knew absolutely nothing about any of this. As far as cool looking, well, it's not as good as the original equipment but it beats the Hell out of being on crutches or in a wheelchair, and I guess it looks cooler than either of those alternatives.

Mostly. A below knee prosthesis consists of three components, the socket and suspension, which holds the prosthesis onto the stump (or 'residual limb' if you want to be PC about it), the pylon, and the foot itself. There is generally a cosmetic foot that you wear with most feet, called a foot shell or foot cosmesis, this allows the foot to properly fill out a shoe. Some people also have a cosmesis fabricated to cover the socket and pylon for the leg. The problem with cosmeses is that they're expensive and they wear out quickly, so a lot of people skip them. Women are more likely than men to use a cosmesis (Heather Mills McCartney, Paul McCartney's wife, has some damned good ones) but a lot of people skip them entirely. If you're generally wearing long pants it's really not an issue. In addition you can have the carbon fiber of the socket laminated with a variety of designs, one that I saw at a prosthetics fab was a green lizard scale pattern, pretty cool.

I have an Otto Bock Luxon Max foot. Which is connected to a titanium pylon. The pylon is connected to an Otto Bock 4R86 torsion adapter which allows limited twisting motion of the socket relative to the foot.

These days most sockets are generally vacuum casted, although there are places that still make plaster molds of the stump and build off of them. A mold is taken of the stump and the resulting form is put into a 3D digitizer. The prosthetist then uses a specialized 3D CAD program (Shapemaker is one such) to adjust this for fit. This is really an art, the guy I go to is really good at it. The idea is to have the entire interior surface of the socket contacting the stump to support the weight of the patient. Despite what you might think (and what I used to think before I lost my leg) the weight of the patient is not concentrated on the end of the stump. This is called a "total surface bearing" socket and again, it's a real art to building these. Most of the problems people have with their prosthetics are due to socket fit. For some patients the prosthetist will build a series of test or 'check' sockets out of cheaper materials such as plastic or fiberglass. This allows checking the fit of the socket and is also good for patients with recent amputations who generally experience a great deal of shrinkage of their stumps in the months following their amputations.

Inside the socket you wear a silicone liner that fits over your stump, this provides protection for the skin on your stump, an important thing, especially if the stump is like mine, which is mostly skin graft. To deal with volume fluctuations during the day you pad the outside of the liner with cloth socks. Then you have a silicone sleeve that slides up over your thigh to hold the whole thing on.

The cost for a simple prostehetic like mine is about 8 grand, a lot of this is labor, getting a good socket fit and adjusting the components to fit together properly takes a lot of skill, you don't just bolt it all together and walk out of the office. The cost for a more sophisticated prosthesis, such as an above knee prosthesis using an Otto Bock C-Leg can hit 50 to 60 grand once the cost of the components and the labor of the prosthetist is figured in.

It's amazing how your life can change in a short period of time. Two and a half years ago I knew absolutely nothing about any of this. As far as cool looking, well, it's not as good as the original equipment but it beats the Hell out of being on crutches or in a wheelchair, and I guess it looks cooler than either of those alternatives.

For people in the industry this is OLD news ... the CLeg has been around for ages.

http://www.ottobockus.com/about/press_room_view_it em.asp?id=140

Many alternatives from different companies exist for the CLeg.

The myoelectric stuff is at least cool, but the CLeg?

Come on ... news should be new.

Andrew Lourake is an American jet pilot, who had his leg amputeed in 1998. Now he has a C-Leg and in October 2004 he returned to his job. He works for the federal government carrying government officials, congressmen and the like in the C-20 Gulfstream. During the training his performance during some exercises (saving passengers from a burning plane after a crash, for example) was better than that of two healthy novice pilots training together with him.

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