Finnish man installs his memory in his finger

HELSINKI, FINLAND: A Finnish computer engineer who lost one of his fingers in a motorcycle accident has come up with a novel use for his prosthetic finger -- as a USB memory stick.

Jerry Jalava, 24, lost most of his finger after his motorbike collided with a deer on his way home from work last May. Half of his left ring finger had to be amputated.

Doctors thought he might have problems working with half his finger removed but while waiting for his new prosthetic, Jalava found it was easier to use the keyboard without the prosthetic so started joking with his friends about uses for half a finger.

"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 told Reuters Television.

"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 accesses the memory stick by peeling back the nail on the prosthetic finger and uses it to store photos and various computer programs.

The finger is not permanently attached to his hand, which means that it can be left plugged into the USB slot on his computer -- and that has happened to him.

"The concept of leaving your finger at work is just not everyday," he laughed.