High schooler Benjamin Choi invented a new generation prosthetic arm
Benjamin Choi, the seventeen-year-old high schooler, spent the pandemic designing a prosthetic device that does not require a brain surgery
The initial impulse for Benjamin Choi’s research was a documentary titled “60 minutes” that discussed mind-controlled prosthetic devices that were managed by inserting a small chip in the person’s head. Benjamin compared the device to something out of a Star Wars universe.
While his summer plans to research aluminum fuels in a lab fell through due to the pandemic, Choi created a lab on a ping-pong table in his basement. The basis of the arm was created using an amateur 3D printer and a bit of fishing line. After 30 hours of printing the separate parts of the arm, he joined them with a rubber band. Choi has also posted the instructions online.
The mind-reading aspect of the prosthetic comes from brain wave data and head gestures. Benjamin had some experience building robots and coding from participating in competitive robotics at school. A couple of years ago, the young engineer self-learned computer programming languages Python and C++ by watching videos on Stack Overflow.
After making the initial prototype and testing it out, he created a more durable version of the arm from more durable materials that can withstand weights up to four tons. The brain of the arm is an AI that interprets the host’s brain waves. Choi has managed to achieve his ambition and make the device affordable, as the current manufacture costs are approximately $300, while comparable products in the market cost between $7,000 to $500,000.
