Well, I'd like to start off as by saying that being a veteran and also returning to Afghanistan next year, that it is nice to see someone who took a disability and turned it into a way to succeed in life. This is about a veteran named Jonathan Kuniholm who lost an arm in combat while deployed to Iraq. He, after successfully completing long physical therapy sessions and painful surgeries was able to utilize prosthetic pieces to replace his missing arm, but with each one there lies pro's and con's to each variation that he had. He was able to create an open forum through a part of the corporation he worked for (Tackle Design) to bring together a main cause, which was to support others in positions like himself by further designing and inventing prosthesis that would enable veterans and others alike in functioning just like able bodied individuals would be able to in society.
A couple of the projects that are being sought out by his open forum is one called the open standard, which works in conjunction with the open myoelectric platform. It would be a set standard to have a communications port that is open source in nature, just like how we connect android based phones to a computer with usb cords. This would create an easier, more simpler way of being able to create and manipulate different mechanical attachments with the open myoelectronic platform prosthesis to do many variations in tasks. The myoelectric platform (working in reverse order here) is a platform that uses robotics to be able to do certain tasks, but originally needed a lot more work and engineering to be workable and useful. it was one of the first three arms that Jonathan had after his departure from Walter Reed Medical Center and was one that he took apart to try and design, fabricate, and engineer a better, more functional form of to be able to work in more environments since the one he had would not work under dirty or wet conditions.
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