Dr. James Canton: We will need surrogates to track down surrogates. So I have no doubt just as hackers today have used the Internet and cell phones to conduct criminal and terrorist acts that in the future, surrogates will be used by criminals to enhance their crime skills. We will have rogue surrogates commit crimes as orchestrated by their human operators.

Q: Randall, can you tell us some examples of the work you do at your company and the recent breakthrough and success you have had with artificial limbs?

Randall Alley: I really specialize in maximizing human performance in the areas of prosthetic technology. biodesigns focuses largely on two areas, high-tech limb replacement for daily functional use and high-performance technology for athletes/ recreational enthusiasts who have lost a limb or limbs or were born without, and simply want to get back to the active lifestyle they desire. biodesigns is also the chief prosthetic consulting company on the Luke Arm project with Dean Kamen and DARPA, whose goal it is to develop the next generation upper limb prosthesis. I am the creator of a new type of interface or socket (the part that attaches to the body) and this is what forms the foundation for that used on the Luke Arm.

I am very excited about the developments we are seeing today in prosthetics. For a long time, progress was slow because we were more or less a “backwater” profession that many folks didn’t even know existed. Our technological development curve looked like a gentle incline for decades. All that has changed now and we are advancing at an incredible pace. It’s very exciting to be at the leading edge of all this and to see patients that only a few years ago were offered merely “partially functional” technology and now can be fit with dexterous hands or computerized and motorized knees and ankles.

I chose the name biodesigns for obvious reasons, as we are perched at the threshold of man and machine as never before. We are pushing the envelope every day and it is simply a great place to be. New forms of control are being created and new companies are entering the fray that will help drive us forward even faster. I used to think in terms of decades. I now look forward to the next year and even the next few months.

Q: In a world were surrogates rule, though the widespread usage of robotic avatars would make an impact on our own physical safety (i.e. car accidents), do you see the actual human life expectancy dropping to a frighteningly younger age (lack of exercise, etc.), and perhaps even in terms of evolution, an increasing trend in our own physical stature beginning to change, as only the eyes and mind are necessary to the surrogate?

Dr. James Canton: As the film makes the case for tech gone wrong, we have come to over rely on tech in this future and it’s taken on a life of its own, with its own agenda. This would over time influence human evolution, with people sitting in stem chairs and not going out into the world, the lack of mobility, increased reduction in person to person communications and contact would likely be the case. But humans are basically social creatures and I am less concerned about this future scenario. Our social demands for intimacy and communication with other humans is fundamental to our society. But there could be changes that once have taken hold, could be hard to reverse. That is the risk we encounter in a world of our design.

Q: Looking at the rebirth of 3D in the entertainment industry, the advancements this has made and will continue to make, do you see this as a connection to what may in the near/distant future be the roots of society’s acceptance of a virtual reality network similar to the likes of “Surrogates”?

Dr. James Canton: Without a doubt, the new 3D technology setting the stage for an immersive future that will make virtual reality increasingly acceptable with consumers. As we get better at making 3D and eventually, every movie theatre will have stimulant chairs and inter-sensory media, we get closer to the world of the Surrogates. See MIT’s Media Lab for more info.

Q: Randall, how expensive is the most advanced artificial limb? How can the cost be brought down so more people can afford?

Randall Alley: The most expensive and most advanced prosthetic system today that is currently being provided for daily patient use is upwards of 150K. Biodesigns is currently involved in helping to develop the next generation of upper limb prostheses in conjunction with Deka Research (Dean Kamen’s company) and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and the eventual cost is yet to be determined. Much of the development was funded by DARPA and hence this should reduce the commercial price of the system to below what it would’ve been had this been an entirely private venture.

There are many reasons costs are so high. The most significant one is supply and demand, which if you think about it, is a good thing as there simply aren’t so many amputees in the world as to consider this a true mass market. The downside is that because of limited demand, there are few companies willing to step in and invest the huge amounts of capital required to develop new technologies. Those that do must price their products at a level that with minimal sales will still give them a return on their investment. This is the catch-22.

However, as more universities and individuals enter the fray, development will occur on a much more global scale and certainly with cost in mind such that we should begin to see more competition in the prosthetic industry.

Another driving force is payer reimbursement in those countries such as the U.S. where insurance often determines the level of reimbursement. As they begin to ratchet down on reimbursement, technology may begin to focus on less expensive, less functional (unfortunately) systems as ultimately, we prosthetists won’t be able to provide components we simply can’t get paid for.

The above may result in us revisiting traditional technologies and enhancing them rather than continually developing more exotic systems. biodesigns is not only involved at the highest level of technology with the DARPA project but also with some cable-driven enhancements that make older, more basic systems better. I think we will see a spread in costs over a wide spectrum and for those with the means will go the spoils. The good news is that when this occurs, the most basic systems often get substantially better.

Q: Dr. Canton, what is the most fantastic future tech you have ever seen in person? What blew your mind when you saw it?

Dr. James Canton: The most fantastic future tech I have seen in person was a Artificial Life form called Fin Fin that was created from a computer program that imitated evolutionary human processes. It was a cross between a bird and a dolphin. This was developed by Fujitsu some years ago. Recently Honda’s free walking and instrument playing robots that I visited were mind blowing. The idea of a robot being able to play an instrument. Also, I viewed a robotic woman who was quite beautiful in a lab in China. What was fantastic was how she tracked me with her eyes and her skin was very life like. Finally the 200 petabyte supercomputer at Tata in India was mind blowing as it showed me that artificial intelligence must be used to think through the big challenges that we face today.

Q: Randall, what was the hardest technology for biodesigns to create, what did you struggle with most in your artificial limb development?

Randall Alley: biodesigns focus was initially on simply providing our patients with the best set of components currently available but we soon began to see the weak link in the chain was actually the interface or socket that attaches directly to the body. While other manufacturers/ prosthetists/ engineers focused on developing hands, elbow and feet, biodesigns focused on improving the human-machine interface.

Biomechanically what was being fit was decades old in design, and merely was viewed as an attachment point. I recognized it was far more than a means to attach components, but rather was responsible for the transfer of energy, feedback to the user, maximizing efficiency of movement and positioning, and of course comfort. Current designs still being fit today, allow the bone inside the socket to move freely, resulting in a tremendous loss of efficiency and comfort. biodesigns developed “the High-Fidelity Interface” utilizing what I call Vector-Enhanced Control and Soft Tissue Relief that maximizes intrinsic bone capture and truly makes the user feel as if the prosthesis is part of their body. it is the concept being utilized in the Luke Arm project funded by DARPA and developed by Dean Kamen’s company Deka Research.

It is a patent-pending design and the only one of its kind on the market. I am very excited to see where it will take us, particularly with athletes at the highest level of their game that require maximum performance.

Q: Dr. Canton, the director of the film Jonathan Mostow said he purposely set the film in the near future rather than 2050 with flying cars. So in reality, which will come first, the flying cars or the surrogates and why do you think so?

Dr. James Canton: Flying cars are not an accurate marker for the future. This is why. We have flying cars today, we just call them planes, extra-light planes, really hang gliders with engines have been around for some time. The proliferation of masses of flying cars is not a tech invention problem but a logistics and safety problem we cannot control. Now the world of the surrogates will come first but have many more social and legal challenges then flying cars. See Singularity University where there is more info on advanced social and tech issues related to this issue.

Q: Randall, how has bionics changed in the last 20 years? Can you tell us what might be getting closer to make them even better?

Randall Alley: We’ve gone from purely mechanical joints to motorized and computerized versions that are fairly dependable. We’ve also crossed over from simple electric hands with one type of grip and fixed fingers to fully articulating systems with varying types of grips. We’ve developed lifelike looking skin coverings for all of the above and we’ve done it on a very tight budget.

Now with the DARPA project and others, we are getting far closer to mimicking not just the basic function of the human body, but in some areas the physical capability limits of the human body. While this is still a ways off, we are approaching this reality far faster than ever before. Perhaps the brain interface technology will reach us faster than the ability to jump tall buildings in a single bound, but what we can imagine now is getting a hard look by a lot of very bright minds.

Q: Rather than thinking about what is in store for us in the next decade, what do you think will happen in the development of surrogate technology in the new decade that’s now upon us? Where do you see it going in the next 10 years?

Randall Alley: I think prosthetics will enjoy a much more intimate relationship with robotics than has occurred in the past. For example, there are many very dexterous robots on the market currently, capable of performing a wide variety of tasks that are simply too large, too heavy, to dependent on auxiliary power,etc. to be considered for human application. On the flip side, current prosthetic technology must take into account the weight, complexity of operation, battery life and real functional capability in our daily lives, not simply a focused task that many robots are designed for.

We will begin to see the merging of these two areas and in fact already are. biodesigns is involved in the Luke Arm project with Deka Research and DARPA, and the capabilities of the limb closely approach what is typically thought of as being confined to robotics. Multiple motorized grips, impressive speed and strength e, and yet it’s light enough to be worn on the body and is fairly easy to control.

Q: Randall, is skin hard to replicate? Can you describe in detail what it takes to make a convincing and functional artificial skin to cover a prosthetic?

Randall Alley: There are many things to consider when looking to create artificial skin, which at this stage is a combination of art and science. The current challenges are not just making the “skin” look good, but ensuring it is not only durable but also does not restrict the capabilities of the intrinsic system it is covering. For example, at this stage various types of silicone are used, but one has to be careful that the skin does not slow the prosthetic system down, reduce its functional range of motion or sap the system’s battery life. All this while being durable and easy to clean and subjectively acceptable in appearance to its wearer. It is indeed a challenge!

Q: Randall, what personally got you into the field of bionics? What interested you in it? Are there lots of people in that industry right now?

Randall Alley: I had wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon but wasn’t gripped with passion about it. My uncle came to visit one weekend and as it turned out he lived across the street from a prosthetist who had invented a foot that was state-of-the-art at the time. I had never thought about the prosthetic field and it just so happened that UCLA, where I was a student had one of only six or so prosthetic programs in the country. Of course, being naive about the progress of things in the late eighties I thought we were much farther along. I spent the entirety of my career dedicated to advancing a field which seemed to me until recently was moving along at a snail’s pace.

There are only a few thousand orthotists and prosthetists in the U.S. and simply not enough of us to go around. As they say, there is 100% employment in our industry.