The New Frontier of Prosthetics? Tech for Independent Living

Brian Villani, 26, tall and in khakis, extroverted, both opinionated and earnest, shares a garden-level apartment with two roommates in greater Boston that's outfitted with the material culture of young adulthood: big overstuffed couch, multiple gaming systems, oversize posters, a clutter of plastic kitchenware. He commutes by train to a job he's held for years at a corporate mail room downtown, a job he loves--"I pick up all the packages, and all my vendors know me," he says. He lives close--"but not too close," he says wryly--to his parents and has an abiding passion for sports, especially the art of play-by-play announcing. He is counting down the days to his brother's wedding. Villani moves through life, home to work and back again, with an extended set of technologies that are a mix of the familiar and distinctive.