The first video on ted i watched was about dean kamen demonstrating a new prosthetic arm that he and a team of scientists were commissioned to build by a member in the united states government. the primary reason for its creation was for the number of amputees coming back from the war in iraq. the way the scientists designed the arm allows each individual finger to move and even has pressure and heat sensors built in. the finished product will also have a coating on it that simulates human flesh almost identically and can be painted to replicate the amputees other limb. i think this new arm seems like it could be the start to a whole new kind of prosthetic limb that lmost completely enables the amputee to have use of their limb back. the arm would be much more useful than current models and could even pick up a raisin off of a table.
The second video on ted that i watched was about Markus Fischer and his team of scientists that created a robot that can fly like a bird. at first i didnt think the video was going to be that impressive because i had seen mechanical flying birds before or could see how it would be done using a motor and propellors or something like that. but when he started explaining that the bird actually flew how a living bird flys and keeps itself in the air only using the motion of its wings the video became much more interesting. the bird was designed after a seagull and is called the smartbird. its made out of some grey/silver colored material which they said had to be very lightweight. during the demonstration it flew over the audience and really simulated a living bird almost exactly. i thought this video was interesting because the scientist were using modern technology to replicate something natural and living. the whole design of the robot was just based on a seagull and just how to replicate it using modern materials, even down to the aerodynamics of the shape of its body.
