Meet the 'Bionic Man' Who Has Provided New Hope to People with Physical Disabilities
Among the futuristic innovators, Hugh Herr is sort of a legend. Billed as a "Bionic Man", Herr lost both his legs below the knees to frostbite during a climbing accident in New Hampshires White Mountains in the early 1980s. A doctor told him he would never climb again. Defiant, Herr used a local machine shop to hack together custom prostheses from rubber, metal and wood. He went on to become a successful climber. The legend today is busy creating bionic limbs at the MIT Biomechatronics lab that emulate the function of natural limbs. Despite being a double amputee himself, his breakthrough advances in bionic limbs provide greater mobility and new hope to those with physical disabilities. "I viewed the missing biological part of my body as an opportunity, a blank palette for which to create," he said during the 2015 "Autodesk University" conference. Co-director of the MIT Center for Extreme Bionics as well as Founder of BionX Inc, Herr ha