Emerging Tech Improves Life for a Disabled Athlete After 27 Years of Losing Arms

In the latest episode of China’s most popular TV show, My Future, a disabled but tenacious athlete got the chance to write calligraphy and grab a water bottle for the first time in 27 years with a smart prosthetic arm. This device was developed by a team of scientists led by a Harvard-educated entrepreneur Bicheng Han, who just made the Forbes 30 under 30 China list.

The disabled athlete, Mincheng Ni, lost both of his arms beneath the elbow in a devastating accident at the age of 10. Coming from an underprivileged background, Mincheng was not demoralized by the tragedy. He threw himself into various sports to become a distinctive professional athlete, winning multiple national championships and titles. The moment Mincheng shook hands with Bicheng on stage touched the hearts of 500 audiences at the show.

The TV show, My Future, is produced by a leading Chinese TV channel and sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. My Future features well-known celebrities who expose viewers to cutting-edge technologies in a unique blend of education and entertainment. Every Sunday night, renowned guests such as Nobel Laureates and prominent scientists from Intel, IBM and Microsoft are invited to demonstrate their innovations in front of a live audience. By making science and technology fun and easy to understand, My Future has become one of the most popular TV shows among Chinese teenagers and their parents alike, attracting widespread media attention and over 100 million views online.

During the show, Bicheng's prostheses demonstration won the hearts of the audience by using a new technology to help the underprivileged. Besides the prosthetic limbs, Bicheng's company BrainCo is developing cutting-edge Brain-Machine Interface (BMI) applications amongst top industry players such as Elon Musk's Neuralink. BrainCo has been rapidly growing since its foundation in early 2015, and has become the world's best-selling BMI company with tens of thousands of orders worldwide.

Source: My Future

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