The "Luke" arm is a new prosthetic arm developed by Dean Kamen's team at DEKA Research. You can see a video of the arm here. The arm is a marvel of engineering and a marvel of the engineering design and development process. From initial problem statement to working prototype was approximately 18 months. In that time, the DEKA team created a electro-mechanical arm that has 21 degrees of freedom, weighs 16 pounds and fits into the envelope of the arm of a 50% female.

Interesting questions to ponder regarding this 'innovation' -

• Why DEKA instead of some other, perhaps much larger, organization?
• What new inventions needed to be made (if any) or is this 'just' engineering?
• What are the constraints? What is not being shown in the videos and talked about in the discussions?
• What are the possible factors that could affect adoption and use?

Asking and answering these questions does not take anything away from the feat that has been accomplished. But by answering these questions, perhaps we can gain some insight into the issuesaissues and the opportunities facing the introduction of radical new technology.

Technology Effects

The videos showing the Luke arm are quite impressive, as is the discussion surrounding it. In any such demonstration, one should always remember which phase the development is in. Are we looking at a proof-of-principle? A prototype? A Beta release? A manufacturing first article? From the videos, it looks like what we are seeing is a proof-of-concept, a necessary first step along the path to creating a truly useful product. Here are some of the possible technology effects dimensions that the Luke arm wearers will experience. See how many of these effects dimensions are clearly demonstrated by the videos.

• Dexterity - The flexibility and precision of motion
• Power - How strong or gentle can the arm be
• Duration - How long will the arm operate (under what conditions) before I have to do something like plug-in or change batteries
• Control - How is motion controlled - foot pedal or direct neural implant
• Comfort - How long can the arm be worn before the wearer wears out
• Environment - How noisy if the arm. What other side effects are there?
• 'Look' - How natural or unnatural does the arm look, especially within the silicone sleeve molded like an arm
• Access - How is the arm put on and off? How much time and how awkward is it?

There are most certainly other effects dimensions that are relevant as well, but the point is that it is the full range of effects that matter to the future customers of this device, only some of which are highlighted in the available videos.

Community Needs and Desires

The community for the Luke arm seems pretty clear - people who have lost an arm. The situation gets more complicated when you consider the following questions.

• What happens if a person hasn't lost their whole arm? What if they just need a hand?
• What about people who would like to replace their real functioning arm with this better one (yes there will be these people)?
• What about people who have lost an arm who find the idea of a mechanical arm too upsetting?
• What about the community that needs to deal with people with mechanical arms? Will be be concerned? repulsed? afraid?

Again, it's clear that the community needs and desires are as many and as varied as the people who are affected by the new arm. The following lists some of the outcome (need) and experience (desire)dimensions that could be relevant to the community.

• Aesthetics - how it looks
• Naturalness - how it feels
• Interference - how it gets in the way (or not)
• Impact - how it interacts with the environment
• Interaction - how it interacts with other people
• Awareness - how much attention and mental effort is involved
• Self-Image - how it shapes the wearers body-image
• Action - It's function and capability in doing stuff

All of these, and more, will determine the way in which both users, and the people they interact with, perceive and experience the arm and, therefore, will determine its adoption.

Possible Personas

Here are some possible personas for the Luke arm. Note that these are purely speculative - no actual research has been done.They are provided here as 'thought experiments' to stimulate thinking about who the customers could be. These personas are intended to capture different types of adopters after the initial trauma of having a missing limb has past.

• Gung-ho Experimenter - wants to try it and push the limits
  
• The Analytic - wants to understand every detail and all the capabilities and limitations
  
• Self-conscious socializer - Worries about how the arm makes them look and how others will react
  
• Fearful Technophobe - Is afraid of what the arm could do to self and others
  
• Frustrated Achiever - Wants a way top get back full capability
  
• Performance Enhancer - Wants to move beyond the limitations of flesh and bone
  
• Denier - Can't adapt to the new reality
  

All of these personas are from the users side. It would be interesting to think of personas from the other perspective of the people who will be interacting with those who have a Luke arm.

URU Assessment

The Luke arm rates as follows:

Uniqueness - moderate to high. There are numerous other robotic and prosthetic devices that exist and are under development. This is the first that has the level of integration that allows the combination of size and capability but it is likely not the only or the last.
Relevance - very high. There is probably nothing more relevant to someones living experience than the existence (or lack thereof) of a limb. Every activity is affected all of the time.
Ubiquity - low now, possible high in the future. All told, percentage wise, there are not that many people who are missing a limb. the veterans who are have high visibility and there is a high moral imperative to help them, but the total numbers are low. Not all of them may even choose to use a Luke arm even if offered one for free (see above). In the future, if the effects of these robotic arms become sufficiently advanced and extra-lifelike, we may even see the day in which people voluntarily switch their flesh and bone arm for a more capable one.

Opinion and Outlook

The Luke arm is clearly a significant achievement. It is a testament to the capability of brilliant inventors like Dean Kamen, the speed at which small teams can get things done and the entrepreneurial environment of an organization like DEKA. Ultimately, we will have robotic arms, legs, and other body parts. We are today, however, only at the proof-of-concept stage. One should be cautious about expecting too much too soon based on an impressive demonstration. We have seen with the Segway that even impressive and unique solutions can sometimes take a long time to be adopted. It will be 8 - 10 years before you will see the Luke arm on someone you meet at a party.

Overall prognosis