Kids are just the best. And dads who love their kids make them even better. Leon is a boy who was born without fingers on one of his hands. Instead of making him think he was different, his father Paul McCarthy made him believe he was special. In fact, McCarthy made a prosthetic hand with a 3D printer so his son could be excited to become a cyborg. And Leon totally is.
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We’ve seen stories of people creating their own prosthetics in the past, but Leon McCarthy’s story is one that certainly is one of the most interesting as he and his father have been working together to not only build him a low-cost 3D-printed prosthetic, but to also modify the original design in order to create a new one when he outgrows the previous hand. (more…)
Low-Cost 3D-Printed Prosthetic Built By Father For His Disabled Son original content from Ubergizmo. 
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We have seen some interesting prosthetic hands in the past, where they are all definitely able to do their bit to make our lives easier – especially for those who have already lost their limbs in some way or another, but much work and research can still be made to improve the prosthetic hand. This time around, researchers from the University of Chicago have come up with an interesting prosthetic hand that when fitted on a monkey, it will provide an artificial sense of touch after pairing it up with brain stimulation. In a nutshell, the scientists successfully replicated the sensations of pressure as the prosthetic hand grabbed an object by sending electrical signals to different parts of the brain.
For those who want to find out more about how this particular technology would be able to work, the University of Chicago researchers have already published a paper that talks about stimulating a prosthetic limb wearer’s brain with electrical signals in detail, where that would be able to replicate feelings of touch. Theoretically speaking, since it worked with monkeys, it should also work just fine on humans, although there are still plenty of kinks and issues left to be ironed out before something like this can be commercially available and ready.
Prosthetic Hand Gives Monkey Artificial Sense Of Touch original content from Ubergizmo. 
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The only upgrades available for our puny human hands are gaming controller calluses, but if you’re sporting an i-LIMB digits hand prosthesis, you can now grab a set of improved fingers. Touch Bionics’ “smaller, lighter and more anatomically accurate” appendages are now available worldwide, as well as a new wrist-band unit which houses all the necessary computing power and juice for their function. Best of all, these developments allow more people to adopt the tech than the previous generation, including those with more petite hands or finger amputations closer to the knuckle. We don’t know how much it’ll cost for a fresh set, but we’ll let health agencies and insurance companies deal with that part. With these upgrades and RSL Steeper’s latest offering, it won’t be long before our flesh-based variants are meager in comparison.
Continue reading Touch Bionics releases new prosthetic fingers, flips the old ones the bird
Filed under: Misc, Robots, Wearables
Touch Bionics releases new prosthetic fingers, flips the old ones the bird originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Sep 2012 03:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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