Artistic visions for prosthetic design XIV - Albert Loos and ornamental minimalism

Posted on May 23, 2010

My prosthetic arms have one function - to relieve tension. That is the targeted goal for me and everybody else - both functionally (robust, comfortable, reliable, ADL, EODF) but also through their design (the arm’s visual has to negotiate a reality between me and the others) were we to distinguish these.

It just so appears that the more authentic and real the arm comes across as, the less tense people seem do react.

Just what on earth is authentic?

Albert Loos, “Ornament and Crime”. Humanity is still to groan under the slavery if ornament. Evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament. - Ethics and aesthetics are made interchangeable because one’s own very choice of materials raises fundamental issues of truth versus falsehood, of the genuine versus the surrogate.

I really liked to read this at first. I did wonder what was wrong with me since everybody loves and wants tattoos - but when I looked at some ornaments or tattoos for my arm, for my stump, for my body or for my prosthesis, I felt my breathing get narrow and my heart clench - and I realized that a lot of this was not for me. As much as this resonated with me at first, Loos wrote this as polemic counter point when an imperial Austria seemed to - design wise - drowning, suffocating in a degree of ornamentalism that would be hard to imagine today.

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Contineo - Orthocare Innovations presents the commercial version of the DARPA hand

Posted on May 21, 2010

Orthocare Innovations presents ‘Contineo’, the commercial version of the DARPA hand; their development unit is Contineo Robotics:

The Contineo Family of upper extremity technologies is derived in part from the Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 Program, a $70 million DARPA Program previously led by Orthocare Innovations’ Chief Science Officer, Stuart Harshbarger. Orthocare Innovations will introduce the Multi-Grasp Hand as the first commercial product resulting from this program.

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Gedankengesteuerte Armprothese von Otto Bock: die Michelangelo-Hand [Medien-Hysterie]

Posted on May 16, 2010

Wie immer: Nichtbehinderte verfallen immer wieder in eine Art Hysterie beim Thema Prothesentechnik, und die kann blind machen

Von Nichtbehinderten wissen wir, dass sie mitunter bei Kontakt mit Behinderten eine sie selbst blind machende Hysterie, einen gestressten Eifer an den Tag legen.

Ein Problem koennte sein, dass unser Comme-il-faut, unser Benimm-Buch, der Umgangs-Kodex unserer Gesellschaft, keine wirklichen Regeln fuer den Umgang mit Behinderungen vorsieht. Es ist daher Vorsicht, Mut und Improvisationstalent gefragt. Das ist aber nicht allen Leuten gegeben. Das Fehlen derartiger Hilfestellungen koennte dann dazu fuehren, dass Nichtbehinderte, die mit diesen etwas unklaren Situationen ueberfordert sind, auf gelegentlich durchaus stereotype Weise reagieren.

Auch Journalisten haben solche Reaktionen. Die Gesellschaft insgesamt ‘kennt’ dann die Darbieter des Wunderglaubens, man sei ‘da’ (mit verheissungsvollem Blick auf den Armstumpf) schon ’sehr weit’ - etwa Otto Bock oder Touchbionics.

Da geben sich diese Firmen echte Muehe, aus etwas Plastik und Elektrik Dinge fuer einen tausendfachen Preis als “bionische Prothese” zu verkaufen. Versicherungen sind verunsichert ;) und die Hersteller wittern extreme Renditen. Aber wer ihnen auf den Leim geht, ist selbst schuld: Medienhypes sind nicht neu. Und sie sind als schaedlich zu betrachten.

Und jetzt heisst es, die Michelangelo-Hand sei ‘gedankengesteuert’. So … mal wieder ein hysterischer Tag?

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What happened to the Otto Bock Michelangelo hand?

Posted on May 12, 2010

What did we expect?

Earlier press releases of the Otto Bock Michelangelo hand had showed a great industrial look that resembled famous real world prosthetic hands, such as the Becker Imperial hand.

So far and in my view, the Otto Bock Michelangelo design study was the coolest prosthetic design close to production ever (don’t get me started on the coolest design NOT close to production).

Functionally, I did expect the Michelangelo hand to lead the market with a first multi electrode or full surface recording, with interference stable electronics that they built together with any of the major mobile phone or laptop computer manufacturers, and obviously a data glove for the remaining hand to train the whole system. Full customer software access is a given for anything that costs over 2′000 CHF and with myoelectric technology sold at prices around 30′000 CHF upwards I will expect full access to any part at any time. Also, batteries are out, Toshiba now sells fuel cells. Where are they?

But what happened!?

At the OT-Leipzig 2010 exhibition (below), they showed this oops-looking white el-cheapo rapid prototyping design. What it conveys is neither male, nor capable, or cool. None of these. There are no cables, no steel, no rust, no dried up color drip to tell us “man at work” - in essence, no coolness to fill us with joy. Waaah!

And I believe we have too be critical of what is shown as test, as proof of concept, as apparent sign of possible usefulness.

So tell me, when will they stop peeling bananas or filling water bottles, or holding on to objects of no particular concern? All these are actions of no particular prosthetic need (ANPPN). They do not prove a thing. We can do any of these just as well with a hook - or even a regular Otto Bock hand. And we can do them more comfortable and without any recharge, at a far lesser cost and with far cooler looks.

Try to show us something new. Show us piano play, guitar picking, show us a fist and then an extended index finger. Show us *new* stuff, that’s what I meant to say.

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i-LIMB Pulse [new]

Posted on May 5, 2010

May 5th is a great day. Not only does Otto Bock appear to start pulling out of the body powered prosthesis business altogether, but Touch Bionics starts to sell something very cool: the i-LIMB Pulse.

Image (C) Copyright Touch Bionics.

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Is Otto Bock moving over - is their previously occupied body powered market segment now being cleared?

Posted on May 5, 2010

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