14 DAY TRIAL // Prosthetics have discovered a road of quick advancement, or perhaps we should say that 3D printing specialists have discovered the road for it. The e-NABLE organization exists in large part so that such things can be made.
As it happens, this very organization (made of volunteers) has provided a 6-year-old boy with a prosthetic that replaces his entire arm from below the elbow. And they intend to keep working on it until it truly works well and looks decently too.
Prosthetic hands have been created before of course, via 3D printing technology, but most of them were made only for people missing fingers or their hands. Six-year-old Derek is missing everything from below the elbow.
Jon Schull and his team, composed of RIT students Jascha Wilcox and Paul Richard, among others, took the challenge anyway, and Derek himself participated too.
The result was an arm that bends the fingers of the hand section whenever Derek bends his elbow. There is an array of interconnected cables that makes it happen, you see. It's an adaptation of how the fingers bend in the Cyborg Beast when the wrist is moved.
Derek has already taken the prosthetic arm home with him, even though it's far from finished and could do with a bunch or refinement. Not to mention that it's really, really ugly. Not the ugliest thing we've ever seen, but not the prettiest thing either. The forearm is replaced by a PVC pipe, for crying out loud. Speaking of which, that pipe is the only part of the hand that isn't 3D printed.
Of course, it's not like amputees are ever going to care about how good their replacement arm looks. Derek and his mom definitely don't, and we can't blame them in the least.
That doesn't mean that the arm has to stay so crude, however, and the folks at e-NABLE clearly feel the same way. No doubt, they'll pay some attention to aesthetics once they iron out the practical kinks.
If not, there's always the option of ordering a 3D Printed Fairing invented just for that. Although it will be a bit bizarre when you get a, quite frankly, beauty accessory that is more expensive than the arm itself.
Not that we know what the new 3D printed arm will cost, whenever it's completed, but we're hoping it won't be more than $100 / €100. After all, the Cyborg Beast ships for only $45 / €33.