driving down the road I had my arm laid over on the wind a mono Moby next thing you know the State Police was probably over they said we need to see see your hands I said I'm without one hand I said you know I've got a beauty I'll stop laying out like he's put that gun down that's what this is not a good come up and inspect I said you can see there's both hands I can't do anything else I said what it is it's the newest thing in prosthetic just an implant they still do us a favor just don't put your arm out the wind until you get you prosthetic on there so we got more things to do than keep pulling you [Music] I used to be a Salesman and in 2005 I was diagnosed with having cancer in my left forearm it was so aggressive it just wouldn't even slow down so in 2008 they amputated my arm just above the elbow I've got a second chance of life you don't think that doesn't make me happy and give me that much more of a drive yes it does ready and go Johnny Matheny has become something of a guinea pig for experimental prosthetics hand open what he's testing here here being the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is a glimpse into the future of how humans and machines interact it's a mind controlled arm that attaches directly to his skeleton and it's the results of a decade of work and a hundred twenty million dollars of military funding so this is the first time that we're attaching a prosthetic device to an implant that protrudes out of his skin and allows the prosthesis to actually be physically attached to his skeleton I had a problem with all the arms that I was working with I was having skin breakdown I was stuck with osteon Gration you don't have to worry about the suction on the stump you connect directly to the implant and so therefore that you know you can continue wearing it you know no matter what Jonny's implant allows for more strength and mobility but maybe more impressive as he can control the arm with his thoughts for this he had to undergo another surgery to rearrange the nerves from his missing arm all right so ready go we are actually witnessing something that has never been done before is Johnny really controlling that limb simply by thinking about it with normal intuitive thought we are using Wireless bio bands to transmit that muscle activity so now when he thinks of moving his missing limb and now contracts those newly rennovated muscles [Music] elbow flexion ready and go hand open and go wrist rotate in and go ready and go and go and go it's hard I've done hundreds of thousands of hours of mental exercises just trying to do the different grips viens rotations point spins so anyone that you know the right after the surgery they think they can step right back into it and you know you start working it I mean you know you're in for a rude awakening it takes a lot of time getting Johnny to communicate with the arm is only half the challenge the ultimate goal is for the arm to talk back to Johnny soon he'll be able to feel how hard or soft something is to understand its texture and even its temperature as he moves forward johnny represents a future where robotics goes from being a tool we use to actually becoming a part of us I want the ultimate arm I want to be as near natural has a human arm as possible you trust me like the Model T of cars around the Wright brothers of airplanes you know I'm the beginning and as we progress then you're gonna see us and finally move up to the Maseratis or that these supersonic jets so we're gonna say back to the future has begun