小白老师说：理疗医生和工程师Todd Kuiken制造了一种可以与人体神经系统连接起来的假臂，从而提高运动能力、控制能力、甚至触觉。病人Amanda协助他在台上演示了下一代的假臂。

A doctor and engineer, Todd Kuiken builds new prosthetics that connect with the human nervous system. Yes: bionics.

Why you should listen

As Dean Kamen said at TED2007, the design of the prosthetic arm hadn’t really been updated since the Civil War – basically “a stick and a hook.” But at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, physiatrist Todd Kuiken is building new arms and hands that are wired into the nervous system and can be controlled by the same impulses from the brain that once controlled flesh and blood.

Kuiken’s training – as both a physician and an engineer – helps him see both sides of this complex problem. A technology called targeted muscle reinnervation uses nerves remaining after an amputation to control an artificial limb, linking brain impulses to a computer in the prosthesis that directs motors to move the limb. An unexpected effect in some patients: not only can they move their new limb, they can feel with it.

He said: “From an engineering standpoint, this is the greatest challenge one can imagine: trying to restore the most incredible machine in the universe.”

What others say

“His dual interests turned out to be critical, allowing him to succeed where a narrowly focused engineer or doctor would have come up short.” — BusinessWeek