Did a Man Make a Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Out of Junk?

A welder claims to have rigged together an ultralow-budget bionic arm after a disease left his left arm paralyzed. But is it real?

Brian Buntz

After 31-year-old Balinese man found himself unable to provide for his family after suffering from a stroke, he says he took to the Internet to look for information on creating a bionic arm. Using scrap parts and used metal, he reports coming up with a functional device that relays signals from his brain to his arm using electrodes attached to his scalp.

The man, known as Tawan, says the exoskeleton arm enables him to precisely manipulate and weld parts. He says 90% of the device was made from junk parts and that he built the device using skills he developed in vocational training. He reports he that he relied on online articles when designing the device. He couldn't find the brain sensor for the device locally, so he ordered it from the United States.

Tawan has already become an Internet sensation and local Balinese press has given him the name "Iron Man." Many online viewers, however, have called into question the authenticity of the technology. The site Soyacincau even published an article titled "Here's why we think the 'Indonesian Iron Man' is fake," which observes that the device doesn't seem to make much sense from an engineering perspective.

It is interesting that at about the 1:55 mark in the video below, the speaker describes Tawan's left arm being paralyzed but at that point the prosthetic appears on Tawan's right arm.