--- title: The First Bionic Leg Controlled Only By Brain Power | TIME description: A bionic leg that reads brain signals may help war amputees. canonical: https://time.com/video/z468mWGs/ og:title: The First Bionic Leg Controlled Only By Brain Power og:description: A bionic leg that reads brain signals may help war amputees. og:url: https://time.com/video/z468mWGs/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/z468mWGs/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The First Bionic Leg Controlled Only By Brain Power twitter:description: A bionic leg that reads brain signals may help war amputees. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/z468mWGs/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # The First Bionic Leg Controlled Only By Brain Power > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The First Bionic Leg Controlled Only By Brain Power [Watch (HLS stream): The First Bionic Leg Controlled Only By Brain Power](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/z468mWGs.m3u8) (1:54)  _Published 2013-12-26. A bionic leg that reads brain signals may help war amputees._ --- Jul 27, 2023 4:03 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Rebekah Marine the Bionic Model Takes New York Fashion Week](/video/Ty0U6VtI/) ### Rebekah Marine the Bionic Model Takes New York Fashion Week [Scientists: For First Time, Amputee Can Feel Through Bionic Hand](/video/UOu1ROeE/) ### Scientists: For First Time, Amputee Can Feel Through Bionic Hand [Game Changer: Hugh Herr, Leader of the Bionic Age](/video/DHmzvWWt/) ### Game Changer: Hugh Herr, Leader of the Bionic Age --- ## Transcript >> This is the Bionic Leg that can read your mind. When Zac Vawter wants to take a step, he thinks it and it happens. >> There's nothing special about it in the sense of what I've had to learn. I just get up from the chair and walk. >> Vawter lost his leg in a motorcycling accident but his brain is still sending commands to a leg that isn't there. This prosthetic has electrodes to read signals in his thought, a computer to process them and a mechanical leg to execute them. On this monitor is a read- out of the signals acts leg is getting from his brain when he thinks about moving. >> The knee out, my toes down, toes back up and leg back in. >> Overtime, a team of doctors and designers led by Levi Hargrow taught the computer which signals mean what. >> And we can figure out using our pattern recognition if he was trying to move his ankle. So, knee, ankle, doesn't matter. We learn the pattern and then tell the Bionic leg how to move. >> The result. >> I'm gonna extend my leg and [ unk ] my toes down. >> With this leg, it brings me right back to basically in terms of interacting the stairs right back to not having an amputation. >> To prove it, Vawter climbed the stairs of one of the tallest buildings in America, the Willis Tower in Chicago. It is kind of noisy and it's not flawless. But the designer say they are working on improvements maybe even the ability to run in three to five years, doctors hoped to make these legs available to patients including over 1, 000 amputees from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. >> They're gone to wars and that they've given so much and anything we can do to help them, a little-- do a little bit better or a lot better. That's what we're trying to do. >> But for now, the Bionic leg is still in the lab, in the test face. >> You know, I would love to take it on sometime. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The First Bionic Leg Controlled Only By Brain Power","description":"A bionic leg that reads brain signals may help war amputees.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/z468mWGs/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-12-26T14:10:21.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/z468mWGs.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/z468mWGs/","duration":"PT1M54S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/z468mWGs/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```