14-year-old Matthew James’ left arm only developed to the wrist. Which is why Matthew sent a letter to the Mercedes F1 team, offering them free advertising space on a new £35,000 (ZAR 414 000) robot hand if they would pay for it. Which worked out pretty okay, because now has a custom i-LIMB Pulse hand from Touch Bionics.
I mean on the one hand (sorry) there’s some semi-exploitative advertising going on here, but still – free robot hand for the formerly handicapped. Which isn’t terrible.
Matthew had been previously using an artificial hand that could open and close, but the new-fangled i-LIMB has fingers that move with individual motors, controlled via Bluetooth – so apparently he can draw now. And tie his shoes. Nice job, Mercedes – who, for their part, only put a subtle logo next the robot wrist.
[Source: Technology Review]
