Awesome Prosthetics

For many years, prosthetics have been primitive, static objects. Thanks to modern biotechnology, people facing lost limbs can look forward to devices like this brain-controlled robotic arm from Esper Bionics. It has independently-moving fingers, a swiveling wrist, and the ability to perform fine-grained actions like picking up a knife and cutting with it.

After losing his left eye to cancer as a child, Brian Stanley started wearing prosthetic eyeballs. More recently, he turned lemons into lemonade by fabricating a series of light-up eyeballs, including one that’s bright enough to be used as a flashlight. He’s also made a titanium cyborg eye that makes him look like a Terminator.

Ian Davis needed a prosthetic to replace four fingers on his left hand. Rather than purchase a commercial model, he engineered an awesome metal hand that looks like something straight out of The Terminator. It’s capable of opening, closing, splaying its fingers, and makes satisfying sounds as it flexes.

As biotech advances, the quality of life for disabled people has the potential to improve dramatically. Bloomberg introduces us to engineers from MIT’s Biomechatronics Lab, including Everett Lawson, who had an experimental kind of amputation which lets him directly control a robotic leg and foot with his mind.

Open Bionics’ Hero Arm is an electronic prosthetic arm that is custom made using 3D scanning and 3D printing. It’s controlled by muscle movements and has haptic feedback, beepers, buttons and lights. It also has swappable covers.

Greg Loan used to build creatures for theme parks. Now, he’s taken his knowledge of prosthetics, effects, and robotics to create simulators for Boston Children’s Hospital, so doctors can practice procedures and improve outcomes for real patients. More Here.

“What if I don’t want a hand? What if I want a tentacle?” The Guardian spoke with amputees as well as experts about the present and future of prosthetics and bionics. Research on technology such as brain-machine interfaces raise both possibilities and dilemmas.

Dani Clode’s concept for a motorized prosthetic thumb that’s controlled via pressure sensors on the user’s feet. Like the MetaLimbs, Dani hopes that we will one day consider advanced prosthetics for able-bodied people in the same way we treat eyeglasses and jewelry.

The Alternative Limb Project provides unique and unusual prosthetics made to better blend with the body or stand out as unique pieces of art that express the wearer’s personality and individual sense of style.