Konami is teaming up with renowned prosthetics artist, Sophie De Oliviera Barata, and a team of leading product designers, roboticists, and engineers to give 25-year-old gamer, James Young, a functional prosthetic arm inspired by the one Venom Snake made famous in Metal Gear Solid V. This effort has been designated The Phantom Limb Project and will be documented and released as a film sometime this coming January.
James Young lost both an arm and a leg when he was tragically dragged onto the train tracks, in between two carriages of the London DLR. Despite these losses, James has not let this stop him from playing video games and has become quite good at playing one handed.
Sophie De Oliviera Barata, the lead designer of James’ prosthetic arm, started her career making extremely realistic prosthetic limbs. Eventually, she realized that there was a huge demand for more personalized limbs and started the Alternate Limb Project, which allows users to have a say in the design of their prosthetic arms and legs. She was also responsible for designing the crystal leg used by amputee performer Viktoria Modesta during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympics.
Konami has set up a website which will follow the progress of James’ prosthetic arm and The Phantom Limb Project, in general, here.
