Fast work
A new class of biohybrid prostheses will enable quicker running time
Hugh Herr, director of the Biomechatronics Group at the MIT Media Lab, wants to create a prosthetic that could enable its user to run faster than Usain Bolt. He is pioneering research projects for a new class of biohybrid ’smart’ prostheses and believes the next century will blur the boundaries between man and machine.
One project involves a motorised ankle-foot prosthesis that provides active mechanical power. Its basic architecture is a unidirectional spring, configured in parallel with a force-controllable actuator that allows the ankle foot to match the size and weight of the human ankle.
Herr is now developing small, wireless implants that can be attached to muscles near the neuromuscular junction. In the longer term, he is researching the possibility of directly attaching a foot prosthesis to an amputee’s residual limb bone.
i think that disabled athletes should be able to use the technology they would usually use because if if someone argues that it is an “advantage”, when its reeally creating a level playing field, you might want to know what kinds of stuggles, pains, and difficulies that disabled athletes go though that abled athletes live without.
Technology is a part of our every daylife, it is part of the Olympics so why not the paralympics?
“engineering should help to provide a level playing field in sport rather than create an unfair advantage. After all, they claim, sport is about athletic ability over anything else”
OK, let’s start with mixed sports for humans (any gender or disability) where physiological and anatomical differences are bridged using wheels, springs, gears, levers, bearings, aerodynamic suits, bionic eyes…
Design sports equipment (boats, bikes, javelins, discus, shoes…) to neutralise the physical anomalies of the competitors.
The ‘technological’ athlete versus the ‘natural’ athlete argument creates a scenario for the future where it seems likely a return to the basics of “highest, fastest, longest, strongest” will happen. Also it may remove those sports where human judges are required to differentiate performances with the resultant potential for unfair scoring. Taekwondo has introduced a technology based scoring system. Boxing gloves, among other strike based events, should be a high priority for similar tech, as some of the boxing results over the years have been dubious at best.
As Anon says, any technology used should be standardised for each sport so athletes compete equally. This applies especially, it would seem, to the Paralympics. Also, for all ‘skill’ based sports, size and strength should, where possible, be negated as a winning advantage. Allowing dinghy sailors to ‘pump’ their sails makes this just another strength based event, whereas guile and skill at reading prevailing conditions should be the main winning factor.
I believe the governing bodies behind Sports are long overdue taking an in-depth review of how all events are managed and scored to ensure an absolutely fair environment for all participants.
This should not stop technology being used to help all disadvantaged people. Indeed the whole ethos of sport should be geared to improving the lot of ‘everyman’, either through physical sciences or via technology.
Screw this ‘level playing field’ rubbish. Let’s do it. Let’s see how far we can truly test the human body, and if the able-bodied athletes don’t have the cojones to do what it takes, then I look forward to the day when the Paralympians run faster, jump higher, and do that other thing I can’t remember better too.