What is really cool about this technology
is that we can radically change the fitting process for prosthetics
it can take months before somebody
actually gets their prosthetic somebody
could order a prosthetic for us on a
Monday and receive it on the Friday
without ever meeting with us and that's
huge for kids for instance who are in
school and don't want to be taken out of
school or their parents don't want them
to be taken out of school the way the
process works is that somebody would
select the prosthesis that they want on
our website digitally and we would then
send them a 3d scanner which is very
easy to use they can use that to take a
3d scan of their limb and send it back
to us and send the data back to us along
with some photos of their limbs so that
we get a good idea of how to fit it we
can then use the the 3d model to make a
perfectly fitted prosthesis that we can
3d print assemble and then send back to
them it's perfect for one-off
manufacture and prosthetics are always
one of their custom fitted each time and
so even though 3d printing might be
expensive for high-volume manufacture if
you're just making one-off it's actually
really cost effective about two years
ago I went and helped a friend's
Kickstarter and then it on the side it
said Kickstarter's you might be
interested in and I read 3d printing
Bionic hands low-cost
I wanted a robotic and I was like I've
got to check this out I started testing
it's just the little things that really
make a huge difference and one thing for
me is also shaking with my right hand so
there's only born my left so yeah it's
it's pretty amazing in the shaking
people with the arm and their
expressions are just amazing what kind
of accessories do you get most people
either think that I'm doing it for some
sort of cosplay and they're like that's
not robotic Anna right yes it is and
then especially with this new prototype
from DSX the Adam Jensen arm some people
will just like you're not wearing that
like you know they're just just mind
blown and I love seeing it because it's
just so so it's such a nice positive way
to see things so instead of going over
how much your arm or you know if you're
wearing it one of the old prosthetics
like the ones I used to have that didn't
do much ago how did you lose your arm
instead they're like how
what is this how does it work can I have
one kind of thing and it's so much more
positive and I love it we wanted to make
our prosthetics affordable because we
discovered that a lot of the
particularly the more advanced
prosthetics that are available now are
very very expensive prohibitively
expensive for most people to have access
to them there has to be some proper
marketing answer would be now we've made
it even better in the research and
development process for our Bionic hand
we spoke to hundreds of different limb
different people and we tried to find
out in their priorities in terms of what
features they really needed from their
their prosthetics and their bionics and
what compromises we might be able to
make in the in the design to save money
and make it affordable and so we found
that they really needed something with
it was really lightweight and
comfortable to wear that's the most
important thing and something that made
them feel really good about themselves
and about their limb difference and so
we've really focused on those things the
other thing they really needed was great
functionality because otherwise it
wouldn't be providing them a benefit one
of the compromises that we made in terms
of the performance of the hand this
house isn't quite as strong in grip
strength as some of some of the leading
competitors but we've made sure that
it's strong enough to be able to handle
all sorts of household objects and
things that we've asked people what they
wanted to do and use it for we're
working on on making hand as strong as
possible but without having to spend
extra money the really cool thing about
the partnership with DSX is that it's
got people thinking about prosthetics in
a slightly different way so where
previously they might have thought about
them as medical products now people are
looking at it as something is that's
additional that you know they're they
don't need a replacement for anything
that their whole as they are but they
have the possibility to wear this this
additional really cool device that gives
them extra capabilities that they didn't
have before I first started working with
Bionic hands robotic hands when I was
about 17 tinkering at home and then I
took the project to University where I
developed it a bit further
and at that point I kind of started to
recognize that there was a demand for
this for this product as a as a Bionic
hand and as a prosthetic and around the
same time 3d printing was becoming a a
more accessible technology so this was
like one of the very first prototypes
that I made which is like obviously very
rudimentary and just pieces of carpal
iminium this was the first one that Dan
wore this was this was all 3d printed
but you can see like super bulky and we
had to make it bigger to fit all of the
electronics and stuff inside we start
using flexible materials to make it more
robust and to make the manufacture
easier which was very effective this is
kind of a next iteration there's a kid's
version this is actually the smallest
multi grip myoelectric prosthesis there
that to our knowledge anyone's ever worn
when I was a kid I just happen to
process it didn't do much and what it
was they put they put stickers of
because I asked I got the stick as
myself and we put laser Simpson stickers
on it
that was as customizers as they got back
then so when I showed this specially
this arm
we're aware right now the are actual
reaction is it's overwhelming for me
because I when I was a kid I dreamt of
this I literally thought one day this
might happen but I never thought would
happen and I'm you know here right now
showing you guys what it's like at the
moment it looks like the biggest cost
for the product is going to be in the
time spent manufacturing and assembling
it and that's something that as
technology improves we can streamline
even further so as 3d scanning
technology gets better as our software
becomes further developed we can
automate certain processes and then we
can streamline the development even
further so it's even faster and even
more cost-effective in the next six
months we're gearing up to do a broader
scale clinical trial so we can't give an
exact release date at the moment but
we're because we don't necessarily know
what's going to happen with the next
testing phases and the clinical trials
but we're aiming for a release date in
2017
