ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT MY BIONIC ARMS | Let's Chat

Hey everyone, it's Tilly, and welcome back to my YouTube channel. As you would have seen by the title, today I'm going to be answering some of your questions about my bionic arms. So the first one is pretty basic, but it's: how do your bionic arms work? Basically, there are no wires or anything attached to them. There are muscle sensors on the inside, both here and the other side over here. And basically what they do is they track the user's muscles, so it's all programmed to fit the user's muscles. However strong you are, it will be programmed to fit your strength, so you're not like really having to squeeze to make a difference in the hand. But basically, I will squeeze my muscles to close and flex to open. So it's pretty easy like that. I think it's just like your human hands. Obviously I don't remember, but people I've spoke to, like, I can move my arm on the inside. So this is what my arm will be doing on the inside. So to squeeze and to flex, so you can see the difference there. And if my arm can do that anyway, then I imagine that's how your hands would work. But basically that's how you open and close the hands. But you may have seen me doing different grip modes with my hands in pictures or other videos. So basically, to do that, you will open the hand fully by flexing your muscles. Then I'm gonna turn this wrist around so you can see the color change on the button. If you flex again once the hand is already open, it will flash green, and now my grip has changed. So that's me changing the grip mode. You can see the thumbs moving. So there are 4 in total. So if I squeeze my arm now, this is the first one. This is how I would like wave, shake someone's hand, give someone a high five. And this is also how I hold my makeup brushes. So if I squeeze now, I would put the brush in there. And also there is a thumb sticking out. So I like to do this as— use this as— I like to use this as a thumbs up. All the time, but it can also go in as well. So it's the grip you'd use if you wanted to punch someone also. Then if I open the hand and flex again, the thumb will go in. This grip is really good for holding like standard objects like a ball or a cup because it's just round, squeeze like that. Then if I press the button on the hand, it will turn pink. The button, you missed that because I couldn't turn around quick enough, but it's a pink color. And then if I squeeze my muscles now, only 2 fingers go down. So I always use this. I like to put it over my eyes sometimes, but this is really great for picking up smaller objects. And finally, this is my least used grip mode, but it's the tripod. So it's basically the other 2 fingers down. Whenever I use this grip mode, I'm always just doing a peace sign. I never really use it that much actually picking up objects, but this is the one you would probably use for miscellaneous, whatever the word is, maybe a fork or something like that, but I just like doing the peace sign. So that's how they work. So next we have, do your bionic arms have sensors on the fingertips? And if you mean by like haptic feedback, no, because I can't feel anything with the hands or anything like that, but they don't have any sensors on the tips. They're not touch they're not touch sensitive without a paint you have to get and then they can be touch sensitive so you could use your phone with them. But I don't receive any haptic feedback or anything like that yet. Light decided to turn off. So the answer to that question is no, there are no sensors in the fingertips. So the next one was a really, really cool one which was if you could design a pair of hands, what would they look like? And they would have quite a lot of features in them, I know. I think people are wanting me to say like lasers and the things and everything right now. But like, yeah, that would be cool, but it's not really my number one priority. But I think they would probably look kind of a chrome or gold metallic, maybe an iridescent, like white with pink sparkles, purple. I'll wear any. I really like the metallic purple look as well, like the Alita rock. So anything cool like that, really futuristic looking. But there are a couple of features I would want in them. So I think number 1 would probably be like a Bluetooth speaker, being able to play music out of your hand. Why would you not want that? Second place would be to have something like an Alexa or Siri, like a personal assistant thing like that in your hand. I think that would be really, really cool as well. Like, basically just talk to your hand. If you're ever lonely, talk to your hand, you know what I mean? So they're probably my top 2 things to be in them, with like a metallic futuristic looking cases externally. Aesthetically, they would be metallic and futuristic looking. I've just been to get my dinner, so there's a lighting change now, and now it just happens to be golden hour, so sorry about that. So the next question is, how old were you when you first got your— when you got your first pair of bionic arms? When I got my first pair of bionic arms from Open Bionics, I was, I think, around 9 when I got— like, I started working with Open Bionics and then I got the hands, like the first prototype hands. My first actual hands were like 13, 12, maybe around that time. And whereas my first actual pair of prosthetics prosthetics I ever worn were the NHS ones which I showed you earlier, and I got them when I was 2 years old. So I guess I've been in the industry for quite a long time, helping prosthetic companies and stuff, ever since I was 2, and now I'm 14. So hey, that's when I got my first pair of prosthetics. Next is, is it hard to type on a physical computer keyboard using the hands? I would usually, um, go on a computer or laptop without the hands on I'm a pretty fast typer, which people wouldn't really think I would be, but yes, I am pretty good on my laptop. Um, I would imagine so. I would imagine it would be quite difficult to write on a physical computer keyboard just because it's not like— you can't move every finger individually. It's kind of like set grip boards and everything, and so you wouldn't be able to do like it as fast as like, like how people usually do and how I do without the hands-on. So I would imagine it would be quite difficult but still possible, and you would probably have to like use the finger like, like that. Next we have, can you modify your arms? And currently I wouldn't be able to just like import a speaker in there. However, that is something we have spoken about for the future, but like if I was to play the piano or something, like being able to— I mean, we would already have the Bluetooth speakers in there, so we could kind of just like Bluetooth across, um, kind of a pattern for the fingers to follow to like play a certain song on the piano. And then people will be really impressed that you're playing the piano when really you just downloaded the source code, which would be really cool. Um, but at the moment you can't just download things onto the arm and program it to like do a certain thing. Thought about, and it's something that's been that we are still thinking about. So who knows, maybe for the future that'll be really cool. The light is all over the place at the moment. The next question is, how do people react when they see you in the street wearing your berniecons? And let's just say they react. A lot of the time, actually, people do think they're just like gloves or something. Like, there was a man who bumped into me the other day and he was like, 'Oh sorry, nice gloves,' and I was like, yeah, you just gotta like nod and go along with it because I'm not just gonna whip them off and give them the fright, give him the fright of his life, or I have to sit there and explain everything that's happened. So a lot of people do think they're just gloves, which is, I mean, these are pretty, so there's some pretty cool gloves, like high-tech gloves with lights in and everything. I don't know why people think they could be gloves. I guess I don't know, but they're not. They're actual prosthetics, real and pretty cool. They do stare when I'm in the street, but it's not like a stare that makes me feel uncomfortable. Like, in previous hands, people would stare and not very good at like hiding their emotions, I don't think, because they kind of look at me and be like, like not being able to hide their confusion at all. Like, what has she got on her hands? What is going on here? Are they real? Are they fake? Kind of scared of them and they didn't do a very good job at hiding it, and obviously like 9-year-old me didn't like, like that very much. Whereas now people will see me and I'll kind of just be like, hi, waving at them when I'm wearing them now because I feel so much more confident in myself, in the way they look and how they make me feel. And everybody's more— it's got a more like excited look on their face now rather than concerned or scared or like worried or just confused. So I do like it a lot better, but they do react still in the street. But flaunt your difference. Next we have, do you accessorize your arms with bracelets, rings, etc.? I have done modeling shoots where I've got a picture of me with like a ring on my hand. It's not something I would do daily. I don't wear much jewelry. I've got my ears pierced, but I hardly ever wear earrings. I'm not big on jewelry, jewelry. I do have this Pandora necklace on which I got for Christmas and I haven't taken it off since, but it's like a bit of a meaning to it. So I've got like this charm here which is set— it says 'All Around the World.' So it just, it's a bit more personal to you, and I just kind of keep it on, forget it's there. But I do really like it. Um, but yeah, I could wear rings. I'm just not a big jewelry kind of person, so it's not something that I think about. I'm gonna wear a ring today or a bracelet. Personally, but I have got a picture of me wearing a ring. Right, I've tried to sort out the lighting situation, so this is what we're dealing with now. And the next question is— The next question is, does it ever get uncomfortable, itchy, or anything inside of the arm? And as we mentioned, me being the guinea pig for open brenix at the very beginning, like, my blood was stopping and all sorts. Like, we were purple when we came out. So yeah, that was another thing as well. When there was no air holes or anything, like, all the sweat's kind of building up. I hate to talk about it. And so that does cause it to be a bit itchy. And there are like some amputees who will take off their like prosthetic leg or something and then just like tip this fountain out of it of just like sweat. I don't like it. But I mean, it's not their fault, it's just the prosthetics like need to have some kind of air ventilation in there. So there have been times where you get like itchy or like uncomfortable in the past, but I never experience it anymore. I don't really realize my arm being itchy in my arm at any point. It was only at the very beginning where I could like barely move in it. But yeah, it's all right, pretty comfortable. The next one is, hello, I'm a new follower of yours and I would like to ask what you actually think of the Bionicle arms. First of all, hello, welcome, happy to have you. To answer your question, I do really love the Bionicle arms. I think very positive things about them. These hands are really, really new and they're the best prosthetics and bionic arms I've ever tried in all the different prosthetics I've had, which I've had a lot of them. So they're definitely my favourite that I've had so far. I would 100% recommend them. And I think the main thing I love about these arms and what drew us to working with Open Bionics in the first place is kind of the fact that they aren't realistic looking, because a big misconception people had was that amputees want their hands to look like any other person's human hands when really, when Open Bionics actually asked amputees, who is their target audience, so they really should have asked that to begin with, other companies, um, when they asked other people and other kids, amputees, what their dream hand would be, not one of them drew a hand that was realistic. So that's something I really, really loved about these hands, and it just makes them so much more fun for kids because now they can literally get Iron Man hands, Star Wars hands, and it's just a lot more fun, which I think personally, in my opinion, is a lot better than how they were. So I really do approve of them and I love them. Next we have, have they ever malfunctioned? And yes, they have. It's still technology. We always will have technical difficulties, technical issues, and I don't think that's ever gonna change. Um, but something that OpenManage have made in their hand is that if it's like not working, if a finger can sometimes get like stuck there and not opening properly like the other ones, basically all you have to do is— I'll try and show you so towards the light so you can see. I might have to take it off, but if I double press this button That's blue. And then it like kind of cycles through all the grip modes, and there's a little like flicky finger, finger thing at the start, and that just recalibrates it all basically, so all the fingers will be in sync again. Next question is, how many pairs of bionic arms do you have? Cool face. I approve of the cool face. And Bionics from Urban Bionics. I've had about— I mean, I had a couple of like the NHS trial one and all the prototypes before to test out, but if they don't count, I've had like— I think I've had— I had 2 pairs and then the ones gifted off 20th Century Fox. So then I've got 3 pairs of hands from Urban Bionics, but I've had many prosthetics before from like different companies and stuff, and I might as well just show you them all now. So I have this big, like, kind of like briefcase bag thing here, and that is full of all like realistic prosthetics. But of course we have these ones that I got off Open Bionics. We have this one. This is the first one I ever got. This was from the NHS. I don't really know what to say about it really. It was basically an elastic band, it moves like that. You can see like the elastic band is about to like snap now, but that's basically what it done. And there's this hook here that was for strings that would go over me, and the way I would move would like pull on the strings and make this move side to side. So this is the first arm. I can somehow fit in all of these still, I don't know how. But yeah, first one from the NHS, what we have now. This was one of the really realistic ones I got. I even painted the nails on them, not very well, but I'll just model it for you. Here it is, and it's pretty, pretty realistic looking. Like, look at that detail. They— these ones were actually modeled off of my sister's hands. Because sisters are said to have similar hands. So like, they gave me all of her wrinkles and freckles. Moving on, we're gonna get in this huge green bag here. So I'm just gonna pull that open. It's like locks and everything on here. And then if we open this, I I have 3 in here, so this is one of them. This one isn't as realistic. The nails are a bit off, a bit yellow looking, and the battery on this one is like outside, so you would attach this like further up your arm up here. But this one's a bit off in color, if I do say so myself. They are a bit dirty now though, which— but like, I really loved using these hands at the time. It looks like I'm like a 14-year-old girl with like baby arms right now, but I really loved these hands at the time. I loved like taking them to school and like being able to hold people's hands and stuff, but I mean, I just felt like they weren't very practical whenever I wanted to pick something up. It was like I would have to take them off and do it without, so I just really didn't see the point in them after a while. So there's this one. I think these are gonna get smaller and smaller, by the way, except for the first one I ever got. That was the smallest. So here is this one here. This one is realistic again with the wrinkles and everything and the nails, except they aren't painted. This is actually the battery out here. There isn't a case on it or anything. Well, there is, it's like a buckle, but not like the other one where you can attach it or anything. It's just kind of like a buckle that you attach. But here's this one. Let's see if I'm fitting this one. Maybe not this one. Maybe we're getting a bit small now. Just stick it on the end, basically. That's how it looks. And now finally we have this arm, and this is like the middle between the— just the Velcro and the whole case on them. This one is a little bit bigger, and this is how it looks. That's the wrong hand, I believe. You just stick it on either hand, but here it is, and This feels a bit odd on the inside, so I'm going to take that off, put them away. So the next question we have is, how comfortable are they? Are they comfortable? And they are very comfortable indeed. You would think they're quite heavy, and I guess they are pretty heavy, but a lot lighter than some of them that I've just put on. And they were for me when I was like 4 years old, I'm now 14, and they're lighter. So that's crazy to me. But they are really comfortable because the actual socket on the inside, when you get in your hand, the process— here is the socket— the process of you getting your hand, you have to go down to an orthopedic where they'll measure your arm completely in this like wallpaper look and stuff, like when you get in a cast and then they pull it off like that. So it's all really, really suited to you. It fits you perfectly because that's how your arm has been scanned, and unless you've grown like a lot since the scan, then they will suit you really well. But something that these hands also do have is this screw here, and basically what this does is you can like pull it out and push it in, and that'll basically tighten or loosen your arm. So it kind of grows with you in a way. And I went through a lot when I was first like working with Open Bionics since I was having all the prototypes and everything. Now all these sockets have like air vents in there so you don't get sweaty. But basically what I was dealing with at the very beginning was me in this hand— I was in San Diego, so it's really hot anyway— and basically since there was no air vents or holes or anything like that, like, my blood was literally being like stopped inside of this hand. And I took my arm out and it was like purple and stopping blood and everything. So yeah, I'm definitely glad that's improved, and they're definitely a lot comfier you now. The next question is what can't the hands do? And I talk a lot about what they can do, so this is a great question. There are a couple of things that I can't do, both with the hands on and without the hands on. And that is like, I can half do buttons. I'm better at like undoing them because you kind of just pull, but I can half do buttons if they're like good buttons. But I can't do that with these hands on, and I can't do that at all if they're like really tiny pretty buttons. And secondly, I can't like tie my shoelaces. It's like, oh my gosh, you can't tie your shoelaces, you're 14. I'm missing hands, so like there's a difference. Yeah, I'm not able to tie shoelaces, and I can't do that with the hands on either. And the last one is tie my hair up in a bobble, and that is something I'm working towards doing without, and I'm kind of getting there, you know. But I'm definitely going to come on here when I've figured out how to do that. But I basically just can't do really technical finger movements using the hands because they're just like a bit static at the moment, I guess. Maybe in the future we'll be able to like have a program where you just kind of press the button and then it will like tie your hair in a bobble. That would be quite cool. Next is, can you feel anything in the hands while wearing them? I can feel like the inside of the hand because my arm's in there, but as I said, I don't receive any form of like haptic feedback or anything. So no, I cannot feel with them. The next question I really did like: do they give you superhuman strength? I wish. I think there would be some legal problems if people were running around with hands that could like lift a truck or something. That would be pretty cool for me, but maybe not for my sisters if I got angry at them and like throw a punch by accident, or even if I just accidentally elbowed someone in the face, that wouldn't be good either. But I mean, it would be pretty cool for me, but unfortunately no, I do not have superhuman strength in them. But they're all the questions that I'm going to be answering today. I really hope you enjoyed this video. I hope I answered some of your questions. And if you want to take part in Q&As and stuff like this in the future, then I will make— I make them on my Instagram like a poll, so you could just like put in some questions and then I'll do them on my channel. And if you want to be part of that, then my Instagram is Tilly.Lockey. So go over there, give me a follow, and then every now and again you'll probably see on my stories, like, sometimes I just do it for fun, like, just to chat to people, or sometimes it'll be like questions that I'll put in a video or just questions I'll answer there. So definitely go check that out if you want to be a part of that in the future. But leave any questions down below as well if you don't have Instagram, and I'll probably end up doing a lot more of these videos because People have so many questions, but yeah, I really hope you enjoyed this video. Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe, and I will see you all next time.