Founder of the FIRST program Dean Kamen leads by example

As the founder of a worldwide program to inspire youth to get involved in technology through robotics competitions, inventor Dean Kamen couldn’t be a better role model.

After gaining widespread recognition for inventing the Segway Human Transporter, Kamen recently presented his newest innovation, a technologically advanced prosthetic arm, at the D: All Things Digital Conference.

Kamen’s company, DEKA Research, has been working on the project at the request of the US Department of Defense to provide the increased number of veterans who have lost limbs in the current war with more realistic and useful artificial arms than are currently available.

The arm, named ‘Luke‘ after Luke Skywalker’s lifelike prosthetic in Star Wars, is designed to give users freedom of motion and control near to the function of a natural arm. The arm is controlled by sensors that read muscle signals from neurons in the upper body, but DEKA is also developing an arm controlled directly from the mind. 

Veterans could be able to use the arm next year if funding and clinical trials go well.

This development should be another in a line of Kamen projects to revolutionize science and technology. The Segway continues to gain respect as a transporation alternative in a world stressed by gas prices and environmental issues, and his FIRST robotics program is training thousands of future engineers to take the reins and expand upon the science and technology fields.