May 29, 2011, 23:34
Jonathan Naber developed a prosthetic arm that can be built from plastic parts, has no socket but bars and straps and is cheap to build. He also founded IPT – the Illini Prosthetic Team.
Now, I watched his presentation [below] that and went …. hm. Hasn’t that been done before? Haven’t we heard these third world cheap prosthetic limbs would actually be so uncomfortable to not be worn at all in the developing regions that actually were (un)lucky enough to get them? Best to really start field testing soon.
Continue reading ‘Jonathan Naber 2010 $30000 Lemelson MIT Illinois Student Prize winner 2010 [context]’ »
May 29, 2011, 12:58
It is always a feat to watch Louis Armstrong perform. Back in the days they would have cut him off dry had he talked about racism. Instead of pointing fingers, he took the song “What A Wonderful World” that praises the rest – but not the way adults treat each other.
Continue reading ‘What A Wonderful World [chill]’ »
May 29, 2011, 01:46
It is not just that prosthetic part manufacturers find their business is a bit of a stalemate. After all, optical glasses – a form of prosthetic enhancement of our visual system – today is a thriving business that, as opposed to the prosthetic limb business, is fashionable, affordable, fun, honest and open, contains (at least in Switzerland) a relatively high price for the unit (i.e. 1 pair of glasses) and from then on free maintenance.
What made that happen? What can we see in the market, maybe in other products, that helps us drive the prosthetic market?
Continue reading ‘Established companies find that customers like TOTALLY different designs [market relevant developments]’ »
May 29, 2011, 01:28
While large scale combustion can be bad for the environment fuel still has the highest energy density wide and far and for mobile applications, saving volume and weight while extending (temporal) range is the goal of any power source.
With prosthetic arms, the trend is clearly going towards more functionality but currently it is unclear how. For anyone who is interested in seeing value for money, now is a good time to wait as developments appear to be under way.
Continue reading ‘Toshiba launches fuel cells for mobile devices [tech news]’ »
May 28, 2011, 11:04
There is a Robotic Arm Kit you can buy for less than 60 USD. This should get your attention…
Continue reading ‘Robotic Arm Kit [tinkerers' corner]’ »
May 28, 2011, 10:52
When the brain is alerted of a signal that it would interpret as pain, peculiar motion patterns are set into effect – in other words, it makes us move in peculiar ways. That process allows it to localize and identify sources and localizations of pain. Then, the brain will be asserted and reassured that it has, indeed, found a proper localization or body site where it then will place the pain. From then on you will suffer pain that is assigned, by your brain, to that particular place on your body.
However, you may not want your brain to assign a place for pain.
Continue reading ‘Crossing your arms to reduce pain [science put to work]’ »
May 28, 2011, 10:42
Bespoke Innovations offers customized prosthetic covers they call Fairings(R). With that they use 3D scanning to build plastic parts as add-on to prosthetic legs.
Image (C) Copyright Bespoke Innovations
Continue reading ‘Bespoke Innovations Fairings [artwork]’ »
