Let your C-Legs do the walking
The C-Leg prosthetic is helping to blur the line between man and machine. The $40,000 lithium-ion (30 hours of juice) powered C-Leg has a "computer chip" in the knee which reads how fast the person is walking and swings the leg (via hydraulics) for them. The knees read the person's gait speed, weight distribution over the leg, and the pitch of the surface at a rate of 50 times a second making constant, automatic adjustments to the legs making stairs, curbs, or hills much easier to plod than with previous devices. And in a trend akin to conspicuously setting your mobile phone on the bar for all to see, amputees are choosing to "polish and decorate" their high-tech limbs, exposing 'em with true tech-geek pride. Young men, especially those who grew up with personal electronics and sci-fi, are most inclined to revel in their new-found cybernetic glory. Hey, and we can't blame them 'cause them kicks be tight!
