高校の部 優勝
リトル アニー 満里菜（富山国際大学付属高等学校）

Feeling with Technology

 When I was little, I used to visit New Zealand once a year. Near my grandmother's house, there was a boy the same age as me living next door. We used to play together a lot, and we were good friends. He did not have a left arm. He was born that way. Instead, he had an artificial arm made from wood. I never asked him about it, but I was curious. One time, when we were playing, we decided to go to the lake near our house. There, we went for the water to see how cold it was. He reached in with both his arms and said, "I wish I could feel the water with my left hand as well." I said nothing. Sadly, he moved away soon after, so that was the last time I saw him. We were only five years old at the time, so I can't remember his name, but I will never forget what he had said, and the look on his face. That encounter always made me curious about everyone in this world with an artificial limb.
 Technology is increasingly becoming a larger part of our society. We are constantly creating useful inventions to make our lives more convenient. For example, scientists and engineers create all sorts of robots and mobile phone applications that make our lives easier. So what about artificial limbs? When I saw the topic of this speech contest, I was immediately reminded of my childhood friend, and started researching developments in artificial limbs, I was especially interested in an article that said that some artificial limbs today can even feel like a real arm. These artificial arms use electrical signals to send feelings to the brain, while at the same time, the brain could send signals to move the arm.
 In the old days, there were lots of problems connecting an artificial limb to the body. First, artificial limb implants required attachments through the skin. So, it was common for patients to get infections.
 Second, artificial limbs were limited in movement. Moving with one was clumsy and awkward. Today, however, it has become easier to fit artificial limbs on to patients, and what's more, they are very flexible. In some cases, they can even provide more power and elasticity than real limbs! But never could I imagine that artificial limbs would let users feel through them.
 One article from National Geographic had an interesting story. A 36-year-old man from Denmark had lost his arm in an accident. He wanted to feel again, so he had pressure sensors implanted into the fingers of his artificial hand. He underwent surgery to connect the pressure sensors to the nerves of his real upper arm. After the surgery, he grabbed a wooden block with his artificial hand. His nerves tingled. He said, "I could feel round things and soft things and hard things... It's so amazing to feel something that you haven't been able to feel for so many years!"
 I was reminded of the five-year-old boy next door. On the one hand, I am sad to have grown up, and to have forgotten his name. But on the other hand, I am happy that technology today exists for him to once again feel the chilly water in the lake. I hope to meet him one day again, with his new artificial limb, feeling the warmth of my hands