Cyborg Olympics is Coming this Fall

You heard right. There’s a team of scientists in Europe who are arranging the world’s first Cyborg Olympics, called the Cybathlon. Hosted in Zurich this October, it aims to help gauge the performance and advancement in the latest developments of prosthesis and other devices that can augment human ability beyond what is considered normal or baseline.

The best example of this is [Oscar Pistorius] — the man with fiberglass spring legs. He’s a double amputee who can run at an Olympic level — or maybe even faster. With the Cybathlon, his prosthesis would not only be accepted, but encouraged to help demonstrate and further the technology by adding a competitive angle to the companies manufacturing them. 

There will be competitions of dexterity for individuals with advanced arm and hand prosthesis — from cutting bread to open bottles of jam. Advanced wheel chair designs will tackle obstacle courses, and prosthetic legs will too! Paraplegic cycling races will be competed by using electrical stimulation to fire leg muscles in order to peddle — we had no idea that was even a possibility!

We think this is awesome. What do you think?

[via r/Futurology]

Filed under: Medical hacks, news

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