Inspiration
What it does
How we built it
Challenges we ran into
Accomplishments that we're proud of
What we learned
What's next for Super Hands
While attempting to decide how to proceed at this years hackathon I found myself watching a commercial which depicted a young girl attempting to ride a bicycle with a prosthetic limb. Needless to say this looked awkward and forced let alone silly considering it implied children needed different prosthesis for different activities.
If one were to take a moment to consider this, it does not take long to come to the conclusion that a mother/father would want to allow their child to make use of as many opportunities as possible and of course feel as normal as possible when so young. The usual high cost of advanced prosthesis paired with a child's uncanny growth rate, many children find themselves with antiquated technology.
Our team decided to go into this not only due to its challenges but also its possible benefits to the populous affected by injury. With limited time building it was all but impossible. Instead what we did decide to do was use this time to create a platform to reach those affected with a cheap solution which we too designed during the course of this weekend.
One of the main challenges that we tackled head on was the fact that children grow in all shapes and sizes. This being said we had to design an arm that would accommodate the smallest of children keeping it as light weight as possible.
Also within this realm is the fact that not all amputees hold the same sized stomp. To combat both of these issues we were able to make a small base model with accurate ratio driven dimensions which when necessary can be sized to fit any of the intended customer base.
What of the biggest things that we are proud of is the fact that we hold the record for one of the worlds cheapest bionic arms and perhaps the cheapest in the world for children. This was made possible by cheap 3D printing methods as well as simple component acquisition. This essentially turned the company outlook to not attempt to provide the best most life changing arm; but instead to provide one that would change lives and would not change the state of banks at each growth spurt.
We learned that there is indeed a market for this style of solution and we believe that we owe it to those affected a chance at a different life. To give a child the ability to ride a bike, pick up a toy, or eat a candy is something worth trying for. With this in mind we would like to work on getting 2-3 children fitted with our prosthetic for free to determine if this is the proper route to take.
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