Zac Vawter lost a leg in an accident 3 years ago and since then he has been through an ordeal looking for a prosthesis (he calls it a 'fake leg') which for him had satisfactory answers close to those of a real leg. So the thirty-one-year-old software engineer from Washington signed up in 2010 as a volunteer tester in a research program with the aim of creating a thought-guided bionic leg.
The Rehabilitation Institute of the Bionic Medicine Center of Chicago led an experiment which today achieved fabulous results: Vawter is about to 'debut' at the helm of a completely new bionic leg, in a task that is sometimes arduous even for flesh and blood legs: climbing the 103 floors of the Willis Tower in Chicago.
The event, called 'Skyrise Chicago' will see the participation of around 3000 people: it will be used to raise funds for the Institute, intended for experimentation and the creation of other bionic supports. Zac has been training for days for hours: the research team has placed 11 electrodes on his leg, capable of transmitting 'orders' to the microcomputer that controls the bionic limb. He thinks “take these stairs” and incredibly his body works harmoniously with a robotic leg.
The project, founded by the US Department of Defense in collaboration with Vanderbilt University, MIT and other American institutes, has so far cost around € 7 million, and could give us a future in which bionic arts connected to our nervous system do their job very well. .
The day after tomorrow, November 4th, Zac will attempt the climb. And we will tell you about it.
