- Title: FINLAND: Man has amputated finger fitted with USB drive
- Date: 28th March 2009
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Finnish) JERRY JALAVA SAYING: "First when people saw it they got really horrified, they just couldn't take it as a joke, so usually they needed a little time before laughing and understanding that this is a really funny solution." FINGER IMPLANT MEMORY STICK TO THE USB SLOT (SOUNDBITE) (English) JERRY JALAVA SAYING: "Actually, last week was when it happened the last time. I was cleaning one of our computer's memory and because I have a memory tester here it was running on the computer and a computer was on the table. I left home, then I realised that I left my finger in the machine. And after a while I thought about it a second time and I started laughing a little bit. The concept of leaving your finger at work is just not everyday." JALAVA'S HANDS WITH THE EXTENSION FINGER IMPLANT MEMORY STICK LEFT AT COMPUTER
- Embargoed: 12th April 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Finland
- Country: Finland
- Topics: Communications,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVACKOQCSJKSURYAT4COJSRUDMHC
- Story Text: A Finnish computer engineer who lost one of his fingers in a motorcycle accident has installed a USB drive in his prosthetic finger.
Jerry Jalava, a 24-year-old computer engineer from the Finnish capital Helsinki, lost one of his fingers in a motorcycle accident in May last year, when he hit a deer with his one week old Ducati Monster 696 motorbike.
Half of his left ring finger had to be amputated as a result of the accident.
"On my way home back from work on the old Hämenlinna road a deer jumped on my five day old new motorbike, which looked like this one here, the animal got stuck on my headlight. We had banged and jumped on the asphalt and finally when the bike fell on its side my left hand got stuck under it. After we stopped gliding, although it took some time, I realised that I lost a finger during this accident," Jalava said, sitting on the new motorbike he ordered while still in hospital.
Doctors thought he might have problems working with half his finger amputated. But while waiting for his new prosthetic, Jalava found it was easier to use the keyboard without the prosthetic.
"The doctor said that I should get an extension to the finger because it might take some time for me to go back to the programming without the fingertip. But actually during the while I was waiting for the prosthetics, I already learnt how to use the finger without anything so now it's easier to use the computer keyboard without any prosthetics," he said.
Jalava came up with the idea to have the USB drive fitted to his finger after joking with his friends.
"It basically started as a joke with my friends after I told them, do you know that I have a half finger - what to do with it? So we started planning a lot of things with it. Then I found a tiny USB and after that I knew exactly that is the thing I want on my finger," Jalava explained.
He said that although it started off as a joke, he soon realised it was actually very useful to have this technical device in the prosthetic.
"First when people saw it they got really horrified, they just couldn't take it as a joke, so usually they needed a little time before laughing and understanding that this is a really funny solution," Jalava said.
Now Jalava uses the memory stick, which he accesses by peeling back the nail on the prosthetic, to store photos and run programmes from it.
The finger is not permanently attached to his hand, which means that it can be left plugged into the USB slot on his computer.
This, however, has caused Jalava some problems.
"I was cleaning one of our computer's memory and because I have a memory tester here it was running on the computer and a computer was on the table. I left home, then I realised that I left my finger in the machine. And after a while I thought about it a second time and I started laughing a little bit. The concept of leaving your finger at work is just not everyday," he said.
Technological advances come thick and fast and Jalava is already thinking about an upgrade, fitting it with an RDIF tag or perhaps an Mp3 player. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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