Mercedes' Helping Hand

Transcript by www.newsy.com 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 <b>...</b>

Author: NewsyTech
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