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Climbing 103 Floors On a 'Bionic' Leg

Posted by timothy on from the holy-moley! dept.

An anonymous reader writes "4 years ago I read about experimental targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) surgery on Slashdot. 3 years ago I crashed my motorcycle and had my leg amputated — at which time I had TMR done. Today I climbed 103 floors of the Willis Tower in Chicago with a experimental prosthetic using TMR. Thanks, Slashdot."

8 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Good Job by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Determination, Strength, and Cool Factor.

    You rock dude, I tip my hat.

    1. Re:Good Job by partyguerrilla · · Score: 5, Funny

      I could walk up those stairs and with a bionic leg it would be even easier.

      He never asked for this.

  2. No, by tfocker4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thank you anonymous reader. No one could rightfully call you an anonymous coward.

  3. Post 911 by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 5, Funny

    You were in the stairwell of a major landmark building, with a strange device strapped to your body? You must be a terrorist.

  4. Re:None of those stupid keyboard/computer jokes by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which of his legs was bionically enhanced, his left, right or third?

    Also, FWIW, I have both my legs and wouldn't make it up those 103 stairs.

    --
    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
  5. Nerdy question... by Kergan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Congrats!

    Out of curiosity if you don't mind the (potentially awkward) question, how does it work/feel when you control a bionic leg? Scanning the wiki article, I sounds like it's basically plugged into the nervous system at where the amputation took place, and you had to retrain the neural system so the bionic limb responds accurately? (Complete with some level of sensory feedback?)

  6. Enhanced robotics training by foniksonik · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wondering if the data collected from this cyborg (yes dude you're now a cyborg), could also be useful as training data for independent robotics.

    Have you ever thought of open sourcing your leg data :) Could be a huge contribution to OSS robotics. Maybe get other's with prosthetics to contribute as well; arm, hands, feet.

    --
    A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    1. Re:Enhanced robotics training by NEDHead · · Score: 4, Funny

      Fortunately for you, there is ongoing work underway on a prosthetic sense of humor.