3D Printed bionic hand
The 3D printing’s kindness has really opened the doors to many possibilities.
Bionics company developing affordable, assistive devices that enhance the human body. They have started the Hero Arm, a stylish multi-grip bionic hand. Current upper limb prostheses exist as hooks, grippers, or expensive bionic hands. We’re on a mission to make beautiful bionic limbs more accessible.
“So the open bionics team wanted to build assistive devices that could enable people to have more freedom and independence. And team wanted these devices to be really affordable. So at the moment, there’s this amazing bionic technology that exists but it’s out of reach for most patients because it’s so expensive. Around $1000 and open Bionic’s arms take roughly 40 hours to 3D print. The person’s limb is scanned with a tablet.
The design of the prosthetic is then planned out. The prosthetic is finally 3D printed.
The Bionic team wants to completely change that and make it really accessible and de-marketize a really helpful technology. So at the moment, everything is really exciting at Open Bionics because we’re gearing up to launch we’ve been trialing our bionic hands with children as young as eight.”
Open Bionics teamed up with the National Health Service in the UK. The NHS spends approximately $75 million per year on prosthetic services.
“I think the coolest thing about this is we’re working really closely with amputees not just designing a solution for them, they’re helping us design the solution. So yeah, I think it’s a really exciting time. In the very near future, we are focusing on our launch of the first 3D printed bionic limb. The cool thing about my job includes seeing people being fitted with bionic limbs for the first time and that’s a really big moment. For young children, they often don’t have access to these devices because they’re not small enough, or they’re just too expensive, so their parents can’t afford to supply them or the NHS cannot afford to supply a patient with it. So, seeing a young child being able to move fingers individually for the first time is really cool.”
“The future of prosthetic is low cost, lightweight, multi-grip, really great control. And even further in the future, it’s all about hyper-personalization.” 🙂
http://www.businessinsider.com/open-bionics-prosthetic-arms-2018-2
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