1. BIONIC MAN By: Pablo Guss

2. BIONIC Having artificial body parts, especially electromechanical ones. (OED, online)

3. The Six Million Dollar Man  Defined what we want in bionics  Fast, easy, painless  Made a man-made superhero  Never stigmatized

4. Who needs to become bionic?  Populations that can benefit from bionics  People with Debilitating Spinal Injuries  ~570k/year  Amputees  in the US an estimated 2 million

5. What are the costs?  Atronomical  For most, the cost of cutting-edge Bionics is prohibitive  One of the lowest cost exoskeletal legs, Phoenix manufactured by SuitX, costs approximately $40,000  Cost of the BiOM ankle Kotler described in detail ~$52,000. Some more advanced custom legs cost up to $5M, though they return near-full functionality by integrating patient nerve input  The average cost of care for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is estimated to be $2M/soldier. Images courtesy of: The AP

6. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – DARPA  More wounded veterans due to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq caused DARPA to start funneling money into bionic research  DARPA has funded both the restorative and human-augmentation aspects of bionics  Exosuits  Bionic limbs controlled by the brain, going beyond simple prosthetics  HAPTIX – Hand Proprioception and Touch Interface

7. Iron Man and Super Soldiers  Iron Man is a long way off  U.S. Military working on exosuit - TALOS (Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit)  Attempts to serve much like fictional billionaire-philanthropist-superhero Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit, being armor and performance-enhancing supersuit  Currently causes soldiers to use more energy  Falls well short of project goals, namely it is less energy efficient than walking/running without the suit

8. What makes modern Bionics tick?  Microprocessors make the difference.  Control  Coordination  Calculation  Communication

9. Works Cited Kotler, Steven. Tomorrowland: Our Journey from Science Fiction to Science Fact. Boston : New Harvest: Houghton Mifflin, 2015. Print. Finucane Suzanne B., Hargrove, Levi J., Kuiken Todd A. Lipschutz Robert D., Simon Ann M., Young Aaron J., Smith Douglas G., "Robotic Leg Control with EMG Decoding in an Amputee with Nerve Transfers." New England Journal of Medicine. 2013. 1237-1242. Web. Bilmes, Linda J. "The Financial Legacy of Iraq and Afghanistan: How Wartime Spending Decisions Will Constrain Future National Security Budgets." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series, 2013. Web. World Health Organization. "International Perspectives on Spinal Cord Injury." : International Spinal Cord Society: 9789241564663. World Health Organization, (2013) Farrell, Michael B. "BiOM Bionic Ankle Gives Amputees Natural Movement." BostonGlobe.com. Boston Globe, 14 June 2014. Web. Francis, David. "Each Injured US Soldier Will End Up Costing $2 Million On Average." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 15 May 2013. Web. US Census Bureau, Population Estimates, 2004 "Feature: Can We Build an 'Iron Man' Suit That Gives Soldiers a Robotic Boost?" Sciencemag.org. American Association for the Advancement of Science, 15 Oct. 2015. Web. Brewster, Signe. "This $40,000 Robotic Exoskeleton Lets the Paralyzed Walk." MIT Technology Review, 1 Feb. 2016. Web. Mick, Jason. "DailyTech - First Thought-Controlled BIonic Leg Aims to Help 1 Million American Amputees." DailyTech, 30 Sept. 2013. Web.