WEBVTT

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Looking deeply inside nature

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through the magnifying glass of science,

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designers extract principles,

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processes, and materials

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that are forming the very
basis of design methodology,

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from synthetic constricts that resemble

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biological materials

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to computational methods that
emulate neural processes,

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nature is driving design.

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Design is also driving nature.

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In realms of genetics, regenerative medicine,

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and synthetic biology,

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designers are growing novel technologies

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not foreseen or anticipated by nature.

NOTE Paragraph

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Bionics explores the interplay

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between biology and design.

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As you can see, my legs are bionic.

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Today I will tell human stories

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of bionic integration,

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how electromechanics attached to the body

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and implanted inside the body

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are beginning to bridge the gap

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between disability and ability,

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between human limitation

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and human potential.

NOTE Paragraph

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Bionics has defined my physicality.

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In 1982, both of my legs were amputated

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due to tissue damage from frostbite

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incurred during a mountain climbing accident.

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At that time, I didn't view my body

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as broken.

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I reasoned that a human being

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can never be broken.

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Technology is broken.

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Technology is inadequate.

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This simple but powerful idea

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was a call to arms

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to advance technology

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for the elimination of my own disability

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and ultimately to the disability of others.

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I began by developing specialized limbs

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that allowed me to return

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to the vertical world of rock and ice climbing.

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I quickly realized that the artificial part of my body

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is malleable,

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able to take on any form, any function,

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a blank slate through which to create

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perhaps structures that could extend beyond

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biological capability.

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I made my height adjustable.

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I could be as short as five feet or as tall as I'd like.

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(Laughter)

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So when I was feeling badly about myself,

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insecure, I would jack my height up,

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but when I was feeling confident and suave,

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I would knock my height down a notch

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just to give the competition a chance.

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(Laughter) (Applause)

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Narrow, wedged feet allow me to climb

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steep rock fissures

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where the human foot cannot penetrate,

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and spiked feet enable me to climb

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vertical ice walls

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without ever experiencing muscle leg fatigue.

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Through technological innovation,

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I returned to my sport stronger and better.

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Technology had eliminated my disability

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and allowed me a new climbing prowess.

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As a young man, I imagined a future world

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where technology so advanced

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could rid the world of disability,

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a world in which neural implants would allow

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the visually impaired to see,

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a world in which the paralyzed could walk

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via body exoskeletons.

NOTE Paragraph

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Sadly, because of deficiencies in technology,

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disability is rampant in the world.

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This gentleman is missing three limbs.

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As a testimony to current technology,

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he is out of the wheelchair,

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but we need to do a better job in bionics

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to allow one day full rehabilitation

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for a person with this level of injury.

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At the MIT Media Lab, we've established

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the Center For Extreme Bionics.

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The mission of the Center

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is to put forth fundamental science

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and technological capability that will allow

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the bionicatronic and regenerative repair of humans

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across a broad range

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of brain and body disabilities.

NOTE Paragraph

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Today, I'm going to tell you how my legs function,

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how they work,

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as a kind of case in point for this center.

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Now I made sure to shave my legs last night,

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because I knew I'd be showing them off. (Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

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Bionics entails the engineering
of extreme interfaces.

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There's three extreme interfaces in my bionic limbs:

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mechanical, how my limbs are attached

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to my biological body;

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dynamic, how they move like flesh and bone;

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and electrical, how they communicate

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with my nervous system.

NOTE Paragraph

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I'll begin with mechanical interface.

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In the area of design, we still do not understand

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how to attach devices to the body mechanically.

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It's extraordinary to me that in this day and age,

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one of the most mature, oldest technologies

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in the human timeline, the shoe,

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still gives us blisters.

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How can this be?

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We have no idea how to attach things to our bodies.

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This is the beautifully lyrical design work

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of Professor Neri Oxman at the MIT Media Lab

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showing spacially varying exoskeletal impedances,

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shown here by color variation

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in this 3D-printed model.

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Imagine a future where clothing

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is stiff and soft where you need it,

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when you need it, for optimal support and flexibility,

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without ever causing discomfort.

NOTE Paragraph

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My bionic limbs are attached to my biological body

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via synthetic skins

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with stiffness variations

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that mirror my underlying tissue biomechanics.

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To achieve that mirroring,

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we first developed a mathematical model

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of my biological limb.

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To that end, we used imagine tools such as MRI

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to look inside my body

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to figure out the geometries and locations

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of various tissues.

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We also took robotic tools.

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Here's a 14 actuator circle

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that goes around the biological limb.

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The actuators come in, find the surface of the limb,

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measure its unloaded shape,

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and then they push on the tissues

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to measure tissue compliances

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at each anatomical point.

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We combine these imaging and robotic data

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to build a mathematical description

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of my biological limb, shown on the left.

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You see a bunch of points, or nodes.

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At each node, there's a color that
represents tissue compliance.

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We then do a mathematical transformation

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to the design of the synthetic skin

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shown on the right,

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and we've discovered optimality is

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where the body is stiff, the
synthetic skin should be soft,

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where the soft, the synthetic skin is stiff,

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and this mirroring occurs

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across all tissue compliances.

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With this framework,

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we produced bionic limbs

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that are the most comfortable limbs I've ever worn.

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Clearly in the future,

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our clothing, our shoes, our braces,

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our prostheses, will no longer be designed

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and manufactured using artisan strategies,

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but rather data-driven quantitative frameworks.

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In that future, our shoes

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will no longer give us blisters.

NOTE Paragraph

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We're also embedding sensing and smart materials

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into the synthetic skins.

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This is a material

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developed by SRI International, California.

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Under electrostatic effect, it changes stiffness.

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So under zero voltage, the material is compliant.

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It's floppy like paper.

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Then the button's pushed, a voltage is applied,

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and it becomes stiff as a board.

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We embed this material into the synthetic skin

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that attaches my bionic limb to my biological body.

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When I walk here,

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it's no voltage.

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My interface is soft and compliant.

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The button's push, voltage is applied,

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and it stiffens,

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offering me a greater maneuverability

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of the bionic limb.

NOTE Paragraph

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We're also building exoskeletons.

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This exoskeleton becomes stiff and soft

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in just the right areas of the running cycle

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to protect the biological joints

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from high impacts and degradation.

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In the future, we'll all be wearing exoskeletons

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in such common activities such as running.

NOTE Paragraph

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Next, dynamic interface.

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How do my bionic limbs move like flesh and bone?

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At my MIT lab, we study how humans

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with normal physiologies stand, walk, and run.

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What are the muscles doing,

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and how are they controlled by the spinal cord?

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This basic science motivates what we build.

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We're building bionic ankles, knees, and hips.

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We're building body parts from the ground up.

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The bionic limbs that I'm wearing are called BiOMs.

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They've been fitted to nearly a thousand patients,

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four hundred of which have
been U.S. wounded soldiers.

NOTE Paragraph

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How does it work? At heel
strike under computer control,

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the system controls stiffness

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to attenuate the shock of the limb hitting the ground.

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Then at mid-stance, the bionic limb outputs

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high torques and powers to lift the person

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into the walking stride,

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comparable to how muscles work in the calf region.

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This bionic propulsion is very important

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clinically to patients.

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So on the left you see the bionic device

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worn by a lady,

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on the right a passive device worn by the same lady

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that fails to emulate normal muscle function,

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enabling her to do something

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everyone should be able to do:

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go up and down their steps at home.

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Bionics also allows for extraordinary athletic feats.

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Here's a gentleman running up a rocky pathway.

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This is Steve Martin, not the comedian,

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who lost his legs in a bomb blast in Aghanistan.

NOTE Paragraph

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We're also building exoskeletal structures

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using these same principles

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that wrap around a biological limb.

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This gentleman does not have

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any leg condition, any disability.

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He has a normal physiology,

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so these exoskeletons are applying

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muscle-like torques and powers

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so that his own muscles need not apply

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those torques and powers.

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This is the first exoskeleton in history

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that actually augments human walking.

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It significantly reduces metabolic cost.

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It's so profound in its augmentation

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that when a normal, healthy person

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wears the device for 40 minutes

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and then takes it off,

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their own biological legs

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feel ridiculously heavy and awkward.

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We're beginning the age in which

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machines attached to our bodies

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will make us stronger and faster

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and more efficient.

NOTE Paragraph

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Moving on to electrical interface,

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how do my bionic limbs communicate

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with my nervous system?

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Across my residual limb are electrodes

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that measure the electrical pulse of my muscles

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that's communicated to the bionic limb,

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so when I think about moving my phantom limb,

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the robot tracks those movement desires.

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This diagram shows fundamentally

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how the bionic limb is controlled,

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so we model the missing biological limb,

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and we've discovered what reflexes occurred,

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how the reflexes of the spinal cord

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are controlling the muscles,

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and that capability is embedded

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in the chips of the bionic limb.

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What we've done, then, is we modulate

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the sensitivity of the reflex,

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the modeled spinal reflex,

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with the neural signal,

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so when I relax my muscles in my residual limb,

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I get very little torque and power,

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but the more I fire my muscles,

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the more torque I get,

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and I can even run.

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And that was the first demonstration

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of a running gait under neural command.

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Feels great.

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(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

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We want to go a step further.

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We want to actually close the loop

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between the human and the bionic external limb.

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We're doing experiments where we're growing

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nerves, transected nerves,

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through channels, or micro-channel rays.

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On the other side of the channel,

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the nerve then attaches to cells,

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skin cells and muscle cells.

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In the motor channels we can sense

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how the person wishes to move.

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That can be sent out wirelessly to the bionic limb,

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then sensors on the bionic limb

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can be converted to stimulations

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in adjacent channels, sensory channels.

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So when this is fully developed

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and for human use,

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persons like myself will not only have

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synthetic limbs that move like flesh and bone

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but actually feel like flesh and bone.

NOTE Paragraph

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This video shows Lisum Lett

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shortly after being fitted with two bionic limbs.

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Indeed, bionics is making

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a profound difference in people's lives.

NOTE Paragraph

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(Video) Lisum Lett: Oh my God.

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Oh my God, I can't believe it.

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It's just like I've got a real leg.

NOTE Paragraph

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Man: Now turn around,

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and do the same thing walking up.

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Walk up, get on your heel to toe,

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like you would normally just walk on level ground.

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Try to walk right up the hill.

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LL: Oh my God.

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Man: Is it pushing you up?

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LL: Yes! I'm not even, I can't even describe it.

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Man: It's pushing you right up.

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Hugh Herr: Next week, I'm visiting the Center's—

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Thank you, thank you. (Applause)

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Thank you. Next week I'm visiting

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the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services,

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and I'm going to try to convince CMS

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to grant appropriate code language and pricing

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so this technology can be made available

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to the patients that need it.

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Thank you. (Applause)

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It's not well appreciated, but over half

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of the world's population

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suffers from some form of cognitive,

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emotional, sensory, or motor condition,

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and because of poor technology,

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too often, conditions result in disability

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and a poorer quality of life.

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Basic levels of physiological function

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should be a part of our human rights.

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Every person should have the right

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to live life without disability

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if they so choose:

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the right to live life without severe depression;

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the right to see a loved one

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in the case of seeing impaired;

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or the right to walk or to dance,

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in the case of limb paralysis

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or limb amputation.

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As a society, we can achieve these human rights

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if we accept the proposition

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that humans are not disabled.

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A person can never be broken.

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Our built environment, our technologies,

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are broken and disabled.

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We the people need not accept our limitations,

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but can transcend disability

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through technological innovation.

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Indeed, through fundamental advances

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in bionics in this century,

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we will set the technological foundation

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for an enhanced human experience,

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and we will end disability.

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I'd like to finish up with one more story,

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a beautiful story,

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the story of Adrianne Haslet-Davis.

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Adrianne lost her left leg

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in the Boston terrorist attack.

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I met Adrianne when this photo was taken

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at Spalding rehabilitation hospital.

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Adrianne is a dancer, a ballroom dancer.

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Adrianne breathes and lives dance.

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It is her expression. It is her art form.

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Naturally, when she lost her limb

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in the Boston terrorist attack,

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she wanted to return to the dance floor.

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After meeting her and driving home in my car,

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I thought, I'm an MIT professor.

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I have resources. Let's build her a bionic limb

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to enable her to go back to her life of dance.

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I brought in MIT scientists with expertise

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in prosthetics, robotics, machine learning,

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and biomechanics,

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and over a 200-day research period,

00:15:31.724 --> 00:15:33.413
we studied dance.

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We brought in dancers with biological limbs,

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and we studied how do they move,

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what forces do they apply on the dance floor,

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and we took those data

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and we put forth fundamental principles of dance,

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reflexive dance capability,

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and we embedded that intelligence

00:15:52.268 --> 00:15:54.069
into the bionic limb.

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Bionics is not only about making people

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stronger and faster.

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Our expression, our humanity

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can be embedded into electromechanics.

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It was 3.5 seconds

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between the bomb blasts

00:16:07.891 --> 00:16:09.816
in the Boston terrorist attack.

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In 3.5 seconds, the criminals and cowards

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took Adrianne off the dance floor.

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In 200 days, we put her back.

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We will not be intimidated, brought down,

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diminished, conquered, or stopped

00:16:23.453 --> 00:16:25.277
by acts of violence.

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(Applause)

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Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to introduce

00:16:35.375 --> 00:16:37.493
Adrianne Haslet-Davis,

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her first performance since the attack.

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She's dancing with Christian Lightner.

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(Applause)

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(Music: "Ring My Bell" performed by Enrique Iglesias)

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(Applause)

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Ladies and gentlemen,

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members of the research team,

00:18:13.717 --> 00:18:17.353
Elliott Rouse and Nathan Villagaray-Carski.

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Elliott and Nathan.

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(Applause)