Say hello to Wayan Sutawan, Indonesia’s Iron Man who has managed to build himself a robotic contraption that is capable of reading signals from his brain and giving him control of his paralyzed left arm back again. Of course, that’s what he claims it does.
This amazing story started off about six months back when Sutawan suffered a stroke and was left with a paralyzed left arm. Sutawan had studied a bit of mechanical engineering in high school and is a father of three. He spent the next few months working on this amazing robotic arm by making use of spare parts that he had access to in his garage. The end result being a strap-on contraption connected to a headband that according to him, is capable of reading his brainwaves and transmitting commands.
Indonesia’s Kompas TV covered the story and in the video, Sutawan can be seen strapping the bionic limb onto his left arm and following a bit of concentration, the arm jerks to life. He makes use of the hand for carrying out delicate tasks and is also capable of lifting up to 10kg of weight using the device.
Sutawan claims that the robotic arm has helped him out greatly and despite being out of work about 6 months ago, he is able to support his family. He says, “The tool is not perfect, but is tolerable and has helped me.” A number of skeptical views have also surfaced that question the authenticity of this feat. The most important question being that where is the processor that performs the transformation of brain signals into mechanical orders and the question of how he managed complex programming without relevant knowledge. In any case, whether it’s real or not, we will have to wait till someone digs the truth out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=92&v=Dnokt_st_yU
