“Amarra initially purchased the robotic arm as a gadget to play
with and admits that the machine is not particularly useful in
itself since it is only capable of lifting objects that weigh in at
about 100 grams.“Typically, the arm is controlled by issuing a series of
commands to it via its USB interface. While the device comes with
its own software, some months back, a hardware hacker known as
notbrainsurgery reverse engineered the USB protocol that the
robotic arm uses.“This opened up a whole world to other hackers who were
interested in creating their own uses for the device. When Amarra
broke his wrist, he realised that it would be more convenient if he
could control the robotic arm by training it to respond to voice
commands.“He jokes that he wished that it could help him wash the dishes,
but the arm is not really that capable, even with voice-recognition
in place.”