TRANSHUMANISM
Background
The Flex-foot cheetah was invented by Van Philips in the year 1997 (Ossur.com, 2013), who modelled it after the leg of the fastest animal on Earth, the cheetah (Invention.smithsonian.org, 2013).
Flex-foot cheetah
How did it come about?
Philips lost a foot during water skiing at the age of 21and was dissatisfied with the heft and clumsiness of his prosthetic options. After changing his college major to Prosthetics and Orthotics studies, and much research and discussions with his counterparts, Phillips designed a foot to suit his needs and set up his own company to supply this device to others like him (Invention.smithsonian.org, 2013).
Aim
To allow amputee athletes to take part in competitive and/or recreational sports
Features
The Flex-foot Cheetah is a custom-built, high performance carbon fibre foot which is flexible, sturdy, and light-weight.
The carbon technology featured in the Flex-Foot Cheetah comes in a myriad of configurations to cater to individual needs of each user. The thickness and resulting stiffness of the foot differs from user to user, depending on the residual limb length, body weight, and foot alignment of the user with respect to their style of running (Ossur.com, 2013).
The Flex-Foot Cheetah is layered with more carbon at areas where more stress is exerted, such as the apex of the J-shaped curve, and layered with less carbon at areas which requires extra flexibility, such as the toe component. This design therefore provides a dynamic experience for the runner that would not be achievable with a single-sized material (Jones, 2012).
The Flex-Foot Cheetah does not incorporate a heel. This ensures that the reaction of the prosthetic foot imitates that of a fit sprinter with precision, replicating both the swing phases as well as the posture of the sprinter (Ossur.com, 2013).
How does it work?
Propulsive energy is stored when an athlete shifts his body weight to one foot. Energy is then released when the weight shifts to the other foot. The coil-like action propels a forward motion with every step, increasing his speed (Invention.smithsonian.org, 2013). Resembling the hindquarter of the cheetah, the J-shaped foot is dual-functioned in nature, acting like a spring as well as a shock absorber (Jones, 2012).
Comparison to bionic limbs
Based on feedback acquired through the user’s gait cycle, bionic limbs often integrate artificial intelligence such as sensors, motors, and microprocessors, to assist in the user’s motion and adjustments in real-time (Ossur.com, 2013).
As compared to bionic limbs, Ossur’s Flex-Foot Cheetah is a non-mechanized prosthetic foot, which returns about 90% of the energy stored in it, which is about three times lesser than a normal, physically healthy, leg and foot, which studies has found out to return 249% of the energy stored in the foot (Ossur.com, 2013).
Engaging in sports with a normal prosthetic foot may cause the user to feel uncomfortable and risk getting injured as it is not designed for sporting activities. The Flex-Foot Cheetah, on the other hand, is specifically made for sports, providing amputee athletes a tool to train with lower risk of getting injured (Ossur.com, 2013).
Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius, a 25 year old South African sprint runner, also known as the “Blade Runner” is an example of an amputee athlete who used the Flex-Foot Cheetah on a competitive level (Linendoll, 2012).
It was decided by the overseeing track and field body, International Associations of Athletics Federation (IAFF) in 2007, that the Flex-Foot Cheetah offers a technological advantage to the amputee athletics which was deemed unjust. However, this was overruled by the Court of Arbitration for Sport the year after (Linendoll, 2012).
Previously, Oscar won four gold medals and a bronze medal in the Paralympics, and had set his eyes on the 2008 Olympics. However, he did not qualify for it. Four years later, in 2012, Oscar was short of 0.1 seconds of qualifying according to the standards in South Africa. Subsequently, it was made an exception and Oscar will be the very first double amputee in history to partake in the Olympics in the 400 and 4x400 relay and compete with the other athletes on the track (Reilly, 2012).
Reproduced from Robertson (2009)
Reproduced from Phillips (n.d.)
Reproduced from Ossur.com (2013)
Reproduced from Newscom FocalPoint (2012)
Reproduced from Reilly (2012)
Reproduced from Phillips (n.d.)