Microprocessor-powered knees! Cheetah blades! Today's prosthetic limbs are tricked out. But it's not fancy gadgetry that makes a prosthesis great-it's the socket. Traditional sockets are hard shells custom-tailored to fit a stump, but a leg's volume can fluctuate more than 10 percent over months of wear, making walking uncomfortable. The Infinite Socket from LIM Innovations looks to fix that problem by replacing the hard shell with an adjustable endoskeleton. Using 3-D scans of a user's leg and stump, an engineer designs curved carbon-fiber struts and shapes them with a CNC router. Personalization is easy: If the struts aren't perfect the first time around, fitters can heat and reshape the special acrylic-based carbon fiber. Plus, exterior straps can loosen or tighten the whole structure. At last, next-generation bionics have a socket to stand on.
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