Australian news reported today that a man who was given mind-controlled prosthetic arms which he used to drive a car has died when his car crashed unexpectedly. The 23 year old man, Christian Kandlbauer lost both his arms in an electric mishap five years ago and was given two one-of-the-kind prosthetic arms to allow him to perform his daily routine. One of the arms was a robotic mind controlled device which could be read Christian’s mind and react accordingly, just like a human arm.
Christian was the first person in the world to recieve this device when he was 17. In order for the arm to pickup his brain signals and commands, doctors attached the nerves from his arms to his chest muscles. The sensors form the robotic arm picked up his brain commands from his chest which were decoded by the arm’s computer after which the arm responded accordingly.
Christian was driving his Subaru when his car unexpectedly veered off the road and struck a tree bursting into flames. He was rescued by an alert truck driver and died several days alter in a hospital with serious head injuries. Speculation is going around that the robotic arms might have malfunction or might have got frozen. Rumors also indicate that the arm might have disobeyed a direct command from the brain to swerve off the tree. Scientists are already examining the device to obtain clues of if the arms were the cause of the crash.
Doctors said that the possibility of the arms to be the main cause of the crash cannot be ruled out.