Cool Sci-Fi Future Is Nigh: Dad Builds Son 3-D Printed Prosthetic Hand For $10
” Shirking $30,000 in medical fees for a traditional prosthetic hand, videographer Paul McCarthy built a multi-colored “Robohand” for his twelve-year-old son using a friend’s 3-D printer. McCarthy says he spent, “Five, maybe, ten bucks.”
The boy, 12-year-old Leon McCarthy, was born without fingers on his left hand. Once he turned ten, Paul started searching for an inexpensive and functional prosthetic alternative.
What he found changed his son’s life. AYouTube video by Washington-based special effects artist and puppeteer, Ivan Owen, shows the results of the artist’s collaborative effort to build a Robohand for a disabled boy in South Africa. Like McCarthy, Owen was not an engineer, computer scientist, or doctor. However, he was passionate about helping to develop affordable, DIY prosthetics. In an interview with CBS News, Owen said:
I’ve always had this vision of people being able to build their own prosthetic device at home.
To help him accomplish this goal, MakerBot, a firm that produces 3-D printing equipment, offered Owen and his South African design partner, Richard Van As, free printers. From there, Owen and Van As honed the Robohand and posted the design and instructions for free download on Thingiverse, a website for sharing digital designs.”
Bring it on …
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