(Image Source: Metro)
BY: MEGAN FAROKHMANESH
ANCHOR: JIM FLINK
You're watching multisource tech news analysis from Newsy.
Six million dollar man? Not quite -- but 14-year-old Matthew James’ shiny new appendage is still nothing to shake a finger at.
Autoblog reports that the Formula 1 fan...
“...was born without a left hand, and wrote to Mercedes GP’s boss Ross Brawn to ask if he could help out with the development of a new prosthetic version to replace his basic and unflexible one. As a return for the company’s investment, Matthew said he would allow Mercedes to ‘sponsor’ his new hand, by putting the company logo on it.”
--A cheeky offer the Mercedes team found touching. But what does a race car have to do with high-tech prosthetics?
Sky News reports,
“After learning more about the prosthetic device - and how it was created using similar technologies to those used in F1 racing … They got in touch with the bionic hand’s developer, Touch Bionics, and a few months later, Matthew had his own fitted.”
So the two really do go hand in hand. But how does a bionic arm respond to muscle movement? Does it just plug into the wrist? Well -- yeah. Matthew fleshed out the appendage’s power source and mechanics for
BBC:
MATTHEW JAMES: “There are two lithium batteries located in here, in the base. And I can achieve pretty much any movement through various grip patterns. For example, if I were to hold an open signal for two seconds, it would go into this pinch grip, which is useful for various things.”
The hand allows Matthew to write with a pen or even tie his shoe. And what’s a bionic limb without a few high-tech gadgets? It’s fitted with Bluetooth technology that allows Matthew to wirelessly connect to a computer to track the speed and strength of his movements.
But a hand doesn’t come cheap -- and good ad space is hard to come by these days. According to
Ubergizmo, Mercedes took Matthew up on his original offer and...
“...would sponsor the hand as long as Matthew allowed the hand to show off the Mercedes logo on it, similar to how F1 cars carry ads.”
All ads considered -- it wasn’t just the unique publicity that came in handy. According to
Channel 4:
“...part of the reason why Matthew was able to get his new hand was because the company which manufactured it was keen to work with Mercedes and share some of its technological knowledge.”
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