World's first woman to use bionic arm with AI technology
Sarah de Lagarde has become the world’s first woman to use a bionic arm with AI technology.
De Lagarde, a 44-year-old mother of two, lost her arm and leg in a tube accident last September. After slipping on a rain-soaked platform at High Barnet, she fell underneath a train carriage and was caught under second train before her cries for help were heard.
As de Lagarde lay on the track, she tried to unlock her phone to call for help, and explained, “because of my broken nose the facial recognition software wouldn’t acknowledge my face. Eventually someone noticed me and the paramedics came.”
Only days before the accident she had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with her husband, Jeremy.
She said:
“As I lay on the track I remember thinking, ‘I’ve literally gone from the top of the world to rock bottom.’ I can remember everything from what happened. The adrenaline meant I didn’t feel pain.”
The de Lagarde family found that whilst provision of prosthetics through the NHS was good, beginning the process of procuring an arm could take two years.
The family decided to instead raise money to afford the £300,000 it would cost to go private.
I thought we would raise £10,000 but the money started pouring in. My daughter’s schools did a walk to raise funds and people were so generous. Even people donating £2 made me feel quite emotional.
“My two daughters are really excited and keep asking me how powerful it is and what it will be able to crush,” she said. “There are two sides to AI. One is potentially quite frightening, but on the other hand, excuse the pun, it can give me a piece of my life back.
“The arm has software and over time it will learn which movements I make most frequently and make it easier for me to do them.
“It will be like moving the arm with my brain. The socket will attach to my upper arm and it will have sensors which detect my muscle twitches and the software will convert those impulses into arm movements.
“I have seen videos where the hand is able to hold an egg with three fingers or pick up a coin from a table.”
The bionic hand was created by Covvi, a company in Leeds, while the other parts for the prosthetic have been developed abroad.
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World's first woman to use bionic arm with AI technology