The Merman/Mermaid Conversion Kit for Amputees
Yet another chance for the physically-challenged to best their "able-bodied" counterparts.
Just like Aimee Mullins using her lower leg prostheses to gain advantages unheard of to "normal" people, The Neptune gives the handicapped the ability to swim at a potentially higher level.
The Neptune is a flipper-prosthetic combo. This concept's engineering supposedly minimizes stresses on the joint between the amputated limp and the actual gadget, while allowing reconfiguration for different types of strokes.
The potential result? A swimmer with shorter "legs" and with flatter "feet"—two advantages that are practically impossible for the natural human body to achieve. Even if the amputee still has to use their own muscles to propel themselves, the whole stroke becomes more streamlined and thus more effective.
The thinking behind The Neptune is the kind that looks to turn drawbacks into benefits. Instead of looking at the limitations of a handicapped existence, it's definitely better to imagine how such a state can be maximized. For that we have designer Richard Stark to thank.
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What do you do with the other leg?
What do you do with the other leg?
just wear normal flippers I suppose
just wear normal flippers I suppose
you can't put a flipper in the other leg, the reason is that the disproportion will create a rotational force, if i'm not mistaking.
this design looks to compensate for the missing leg. thus adding a flipper to the unamputated leg will render the concept useless.
The Paralympics swimming competition has just gotten a whole lot more exciting.
comedy? Hardly! Have you seen the amputee runners with the clever prosthetic foot design that is beating conventional runners. It's that good it's being banned in conventional games dut to an unfair diadvantage. This sory of development will lead to ultimate cyborgs. Just a brain in a machine...
When I was on the swim team there was a guy that wore something like this, less high tech. He wasn't fast but you gotta give him credit for doing the things he wanted to do.
If you used a smaller flipper on the normal it would work. You'd also have to alter your entire kick anyways but it would be possible. Breaststroke would be interesting without the final flick of your feet but freestyle and butterfly would be fine.
Few weeks ago some group launched their first prosthetic fully functional handed arm, with lots of regular and most useful moves for a hand. And Its old news that there is a pair of prosthetic hands which actually can feel, yes FEEL(a guy who lost both arms in an electric accident is testing those). Prosthetics legs have being around for a while and keep improving.
We just need to wait for brighter future to those who are born with problems such a malformation and they can actually choose to use one of this prosthetics to enrich their lives in ways that wasn't possible without them. And of course accident victims to regain what they may have lost.
considering the liners you still would have to wear in the water run $500-700 each and are VERY succceptable to chlorine and salt damage this fin is not really an acceptable option unless you are very well off.....
meh ill wait for the days of nano reconstruction surgury
LOL
Where's the spoilers and aerofoil upgrades?
Soon we'll get to the age where amputation won't be seen as a handicap at all, but merely the path for an upgrade, and it will become a voluntary procedure.
I want one for my third leg
That doesn't look very useful to me. To an extent, you might end up swimming in a circle w/ that.
I'm very pro-cyborg. I just don't think they should compete with regular humans in the olympics.
It's probably best just to cut the other leg off, and be fitted for two fins.