The developer of the world's most advanced bionic leg says, "I don't see disability; I see bad technology."
Hugh Herr is devoted to designing better prosthetics.
And as part of CNN's new show called The Art of Movement, Nick Glass traveled to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to learn more.
Hugh Herr is a boyish 48-year-old professor of biomechatronics at MIT's Media Lab.
He's helped develop something absolutely extraordinary, the world's most advanced bionic leg.
So, can I actually see this new bionic leg?
Sure.
Both of his own legs are artificial.
So, what you see here is a chunk of aluminum and titanium and silicone. It's powered; this is the battery.
What happens is, when I walk, it powers my movement from step to step in the same way that your calf muscle is controlled by your spinal cord.
So, we've actually captured the essence of how the lower leg works.
In 1982, at the tender age of 17, Hugh Herr lost both his legs to frostbite, trapped climbing in a blizzard.
I went back to climbing with specialized artificial limbs.
And after a year, I was climbing better with the artificial limbs that [than] I achieved with biological limbs before the accident.
And this was just an awakening, 'cause I realized that technology can heal, it can rehabilitate,
and in my own case it actually could extend my physicality.
Light and flexible, the bionic leg moves as elegantly as the real one, as if the wearer still had calf muscle and an Achilles tendon.
Twelve sensors to measure force, position, speed. Three microprocessors tell the leg how to perform.
And in the ankle, a device that behaves exactly like a muscle.
When I go faster, it gives me more energy.
When I go up a hill, it gives me even more energy.
When I go down a hill, it takes energy out. It brakes automatically for me.
I see an extraordinary beauty when that intimacy occurs between human and machine.
They should be beautiful, but they need not have a human beauty, they could have a machine beauty.
Some 600 amputees, many of them American soldiers, have been fitted with these legs.
They aren't cheap. Hugh Herr's pair cost $120,000.
People aren't disabled; technology is disabled. I just... I don't see disability at all. I see bad technology.
If someone tapped you on the shoulder and said you can have your original limbs back, what would you say?
Absolutely no, absolutely not. It's fun having a body part that you can freely manipulate.
You know, from my knees down, I'm a blank slate. I can create anything.
I can build legs with wings if I wanted to. That's a lot of fun.
You look like you belong up there.
I've climbed since I was six, seven years old. To me, it's as simple as walking.
It's something balletic.
Did I get a 10?