Real-life Alita: Cameron puts robotic arm on 13-year-old 'bionic' girl

With the release of the movie Alita, audiences around the world thought Alita's cyborg body was pretty cool.

On the movie's promotional red carpet, along with a host of Hollywood stars and directors, there really was a real-life version of Alita:

Tilly Lockey, a 13-year-old girl.

Tilly isn't a star, and she's not one of the movie's creators, but at the red carpet, Tilly was a real-life version of Alita, with a robotic arm. one of the movie's creators, but was a huge crowd pleaser on the red carpet.

It's all because she has arms like no other.

When Tilly was just over a year old, she unfortunately developed meningitis, which eventually led to sepsis.

The disease left Tilly's fingers severely damaged, and eventually led to her losing her hands as a baby.

But mom and dad didn't give up on giving Tilly a happy life as a normal person.

Over the years, Tilly's parents have looked for a variety of "prosthetics" for their daughter.

Tilly was three years old when she got her first prosthesis. It was powered by signals from the skin on Tilly's upper arm.

But it only allowed Tilly to move one finger at a time, which wasn't very flexible.

It was also very bulky, making it hard for Tilly himself to use.

Eventually, Tilly's parents decided to let her go without a prosthesis for a while, so she could learn to live without her hands.

In the years since, technology has advanced, but in general, prostheses are very expensive.

Sometimes even when newer technologies come along, the Tillys can't afford to try them all.

Tilly had to wait for more advanced and cost-effective prosthetics while trying to adapt to life without her hands.

Director Cameron learned of Tilly's condition by accident last year, when he began work on Alita.

Cameron then contacted Tilly's family and offered to buy Tilly a pair of prosthetics with the latest technology.

So Tilly got a cool pair of prosthetics from a company specializing in mechanical prosthetics technology: HeroArms.

It was a gift from the director, and it quickly became a great way to improve Tilly's life.

It has a number of significant advantages over traditional prosthetics.

First of all, it is very light and flexible.

It is more sensitive than most traditional prostheses in terms of sensing and control.

Highly specialized sensors sense the smallest muscle contractions in Tilly's upper arm, translating them into electronic signals that trigger the arm's corresponding movements.

Tilly is able to use it to grip things as if they were real hands.

Secondly, the robotic arm is very cost-effective, costing around ￡5,000.

Even without the funding of a major director, many families can afford this prosthetic arm.

Other prosthetics made from similar materials and with similar technology cost between ￡30,000 and ￡60,000 each.

Most importantly, the arms don't try to help the user "hide" their disability, they don't try to mimic the look of a human arm, as traditional prosthetics do.

Instead, it is almost immediately obvious that the arms are mechanical, not flesh and blood.

The scientists had their own reasons for going the other way in terms of appearance when designing a robotic arm that was more "mechanical and technological than real".

Rather than make the appearance look "a bit like a real arm but a bit stiff" and make people feel inexplicably uncomfortable,

they thought it would be better to show the characteristics of the robotic arm directly, and instead look cute and cool.

In recent months, Tilly has become more and more comfortable with the robotic arm, and has started to wear it to try things she didn't have a chance to try before:

For example, Tilly can now finally hold a knife and fork to eat, and can eat fruit on her own.

He can hold a snack in his hand and tease his cute kitten:

He can brush his own teeth and perform daily tasks that previously required help from his family:

He can even do things that not everyone can do.

For example, dancing to his heart's content, stretching, spinning, and jumping as if he had beautifully slender limbs:

And, for example, sometimes Tilly would match himself with different styles of looks, depending on the different appearance of each of his sets of robotic arms.

What makes her happiest is that she can finally enjoy wearing makeup, and even being a beauty blogger, like other teenage girls!

Starting from the "head", Tilly can use the robotic arm to brush her own hair:

Use different brushes to accurately apply eye shadows:

Choose different blushes:

Accurately contour different areas of the face:

And, of course, apply different shades of blusher by herself. Can apply different color lipsticks by himself:

Meanwhile, because of the cool robotic arm, Tilly also and the schoolmates are also more curious and enthusiastic about Tilly,

All of them hope to have the opportunity to shake hands with Tilly's robotic arm.

Now Tilly is looking forward to the future:

"I can be an actor, a singer, a dancer, a "bionic man".

I feel that every barrier that once existed in front of me is slowly being broken down!"

Tilly's story not only makes you happy for the change in her, it also gives you a lot of respect for the scientists behind her.

Perhaps in real life, the scientists behind Tilly's robotic arm are the real "fighting angels".

We hope that in the future, more people in need will be able to feel the hope and courage of life again from such scientific and technological achievements!

I hope more people will feel the hope and courage to live again from such scientific achievements.