"The project began with a mechanical hand"

February 3, 2013 12:32 PM

Robohand: How cheap 3D printers built a replacement hand for a five-year old boy

coming up short handed (the Robohand blog):" Two men and their journey to find a solution – from 10,000 miles apart."

posted by the man of twists and turns (19 comments total)

This is the most amazing thing.
posted by curious nu at 12:37 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]

Predestined to be the coolest kid in school.
posted by hal9k at 12:52 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]

Related-ish.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:53 PM on February 3

Living in the future is incredible.
posted by axiom at 12:55 PM on February 3 [4 favorites]

This is technology that I wholly endorse.

Open Source...

It's opening people's eyes.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 12:58 PM on February 3

This is so cool. The smile on his face in the video was priceless. This is what the future is good for.
posted by arcticseal at 1:51 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]

I like how he used his mechanical hand, without thinking, to wave the camera to follow him to his ball...
posted by jim in austin at 2:04 PM on February 3

This is the digital age.
posted by hal9k at 2:04 PM on February 3 [2 favorites]

Hal9k, I see what you did there.

Some days I hate technology, other days it's fantastic. Best 3-d printer use ever.
posted by BlueHorse at 3:03 PM on February 3

Props to these guys for just wanting to help people, and not trying to monetize it. So cool!
posted by wallabear at 3:38 PM on February 3 [2 favorites]

I love these videos which show how much potential there is for 3D printing. Right now I'm suffering through (and making my poor prof suffer) learning Rhino 3D for a modelling class. Maybe some day I can do something this cool for someone.
posted by Calzephyr at 5:43 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]

"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology."
posted by happyroach at 6:03 PM on February 3 [4 favorites]

I vote we send video of this to all those goobers obsessed with three-D printing gun parts. What is it you really want to be remembered for?
posted by newdaddy at 8:21 PM on February 3 [6 favorites]

3D printed robot hand? Pff, that's nothing: the 3D printers capable of printing print human tissue from living cells.

It could be one day we'll be able to 3D print real replacement parts from from our own stem cells. Given that people are able to do arm and hand transplants now it sounds like the re-attachment won't be the major issue.

_{(That said, for now I'd rather have a robot hand then one that used to belong to someone else, just seems kind of weird)}
posted by delmoi at 9:36 PM on February 3

Huh, the open SCAD software they used to design it seems interesting.

Van As had been told that prosthetic fingers, such as the X-Finger, would cost him at least $10,000 per finger replaced, so he set about in his workshop trying to design his own.

The thing is, if these guys tried to market a cheap prosthetic hand for everyone, it seems like if it counted as a "medical device" there might be huge barriers to getting it to market. I'm not sure (It could be that you could sell it as a "non" medical device, just something that happens to help people with missing limbs)

There's also the whole patent issue. It wouldn't surprise me if people selling $10k replacement fingers had some patents on those things and wouldn't like someone undercutting them.

There was an FPP here a while ago about a company that came out with a "visual language" iPad app for people with severe cases of autism and the like, for just a few hundred dollars. A company selling a far more expensive system (which required it's own hardware) sued them and got them removed from the market.
posted by delmoi at 9:47 PM on February 3 [3 favorites]

I vote we send video of this to all those goobers obsessed with three-D printing gun parts. What is it you really want to be remembered for?

It wouldn't surprise me if people selling $10k replacement fingers had some patents on those things and wouldn't like someone undercutting them.

I'm just going to point out perverse incentives, along with the fact that gun-related prostheses are already an option.
posted by mikurski at 10:02 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]

I hope that when the kid is older he gets to wear the big mechanical claw-hand Ivan Owen made for a science fiction convention to school when he feels like it.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:15 AM on February 4 [1 favorite]

I'm crazy excited about 3d printing. I hope there is a robust schema sharing regime in the works so that patent laws can't strangle progress too much. Infinite, custom-made, intricate parts available for the cost of some fancy plastic/metal powder and a few watts of electricity? So much potential.
posted by jsturgill at 9:05 AM on February 4

There was an FPP here a while ago about a company that came out with a "visual language" iPad app for people with severe cases of autism and the like, for just a few hundred dollars. A company selling a far more expensive system (which required it's own hardware) sued them and got them removed from the market.

Shitheels. Stuff like this jacks my jaw.

Company motto: It's all about helping...our bottom line. Fuck anybody else.
posted by BlueHorse at 7:49 PM on February 4