3-D Printed "Iron Man" Prosthetic Hands Now Available For Kids

PC World (drawing on an article from 3DPrint.com) notes that inventor Pat Starace has released his plans for a 3-D printable prosthetic hand designed to appeal both to kids who need it and their parents (who can't all afford the cost of conventional prostheses). The hand "has the familiar gold-and-crimson color scheme favored by Ol' Shellhead, and it's designed with housings for a working gyroscope, magnetometer, accelerometer, and other "cool sensors", as well as a battery housing and room for a low-power Bluetooth chip and charging port." It takes about 48 hours in printing time (and "a lot" of support material), but the result is inexpensive and functional.

Comments

Who has the real ariticle?

[Anonymous Coward]

PC World coughs up a hit here on /. regarding a story from 3D print.com yet the link is to PC Mag. Are they they one and the same?

Why even bother with either PC World or PC Mag since they are just puking up on a 3Dprint.com bit?
This is rude at best and sleazy at worst.

Intellectual Property

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you think Disney would be willing to sue over the design? Or did they approve of the color scheme and name being used?

Re:Intellectual Property

[hedgemage]

This is Disney we're talking about, they won't sue... not yet... first comes the waves of C&D letters and thinly veiled threats.

Re:Intellectual Property

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think so. They didn't approve, but on the other hand, they don't want to risk getting bad publicity when they sue and file DMCA requests. After all, its for disabled children without money, not a very large and profitable market.

Re:Intellectual Property

[theshowmecanuck]

Around 25 years ago, Eisner (the president of Disney at the time) was driving in Florida. He saw a small daycare where someone had painted Disney characters on the walls. He sent them a cease and desist order and threatened to sue if they didn't remove them. You know, they even sell their management technique to other big companies and those companies employees become creepy culture of the corporate cult after that or get fired. I worked for one when they bought us out. We had to go to their headquarters and be inCernerated (what we called their 3 day orientation). If you were a good boy or girl the creepy HR types would throw you a little rubber Disney figurine. Wow I got 3 Goofys. In my opinion, Disney is not a nice happy smiley company. Only their characters are and God help you if you infringe.

Re:Intellectual Property

[DemonOnIce]

And just wait for Disney Co response., they will prepare lawsuit concerning their "IP".

Re:Intellectual Property

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not just a Disney thing, though - blame US law on trademark dilution. Doesn't matter if it's a daycare centre using your stuff - if you don't attempt to protect your IP, you can lose it.

Re:Intellectual Property

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not just a Disney thing, though - blame US law on trademark dilution. Doesn't matter if it's a daycare centre using your stuff - if you don't attempt to protect your IP, you can lose it.

The fuck has that got to do with Copyright? Copyright cannot be diluted, you can knowingly allow someone to use your work and have that come back to bite you if you sue for damages but you can still can get an injunction.

Re:Intellectual Property

[Anonymous Coward]

Or you send them a writen exemption for pre-existing use rather than send a cease a desist order ......I know a reasonable response seems so hard to think about but it's not hard to do.

Re:Intellectual Property

[Shortguy881]

Do you realize Mickey Mouse should have hit the public domain decades ago. The reason we have such shit trademark laws is because of Disney. Every time Mickey comes close to entering the public domain, Disney's lobbyists push to have IP rights extended.

Re:Intellectual Property

[Immerman]

Yes, but copyright only applies if you copied the scene/characters directly from a Disney still shot. If you instead drew a bunch of Disney characters doing something of your own, copying only the general style and appearance, then you're not violating copyright, you're violating the independently registered character trademarks. It's like if you decided to publish a novel about "Tom Sawyer and the Sword in the Sorcerer's Stone" - so long as the actual story was all your own you wouldn't be running afoul of copyright. At least not in the old days, before all the progress the copyright maximalists have made. These days I wouldn't be quite so certain.

Moreover if you're putting the characters on the outside of a building, where they can be seen by people driving by, then they're inherently being used as advertising as well as decoration, and should absolutely expect to be shut down for commercial abuse of trademark.

Re:Intellectual Property

[StikyPad]

Eisner (the president of Disney at the time) was driving in Florida. He saw a small daycare where someone had painted Disney characters on the walls.

Close, but not quite.

The controversy over the cartoon characters began when Hallandale city officials realized the 5-foot-high painted figures violated the city's sign code. The cartoons are considered signs by city officials, and as such they cannot cover more than 20 square feet of wall space, Growth Management Director Ron Muscarella said.

After learning about the figures from the news media, Disney sent an investigator to photograph the murals. The photographs were reviewed by Disney attorneys, who agreed that the figures too closely resembled Disney's famous characters, Champlin said.

http://articles.chicagotribune...

Oh, so it's 3D printed

[Anonymous Coward]

except for the allllll the actual stuff. OK, got it. So just get one of these

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Build-...

for fuck's sake, can we stop sucking the dick of 3D printing's corpse already?

biocompatibility

[Anonymous Coward]

How poisonous are the 3-D printed plastics? There's a huge difference between approved medical devices and shit that you build in your basement.

Re:biocompatibility

[Thantik]

Disclaimer: I'm good friends with the guy who designed this hand. But either way, the hand is made out of PLA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P... - Which we just so happen to use for drinking cups, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say "not poisonous at all".

Re:biocompatibility

[Anonymous Coward]

And there is a huge difference between $45 and $45k. When its starting, most technology is shit, but I'm sure, some company will find out a way to improve those hands so that they are "approved medical devices".

Re:biocompatibility

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, so it's BPA-free PLA?

Re:biocompatibility

[Livius]

Which we just so happen to use for drinking cups

It's sad that the state of consumer protection is such that I don't find that reassuring.

Re:biocompatibility

[Thantik]

PLA does not contain BPA. It's a plastic that's derived from corn oil.

Re:biocompatibility

[sjames]

Here we go. Please do tell us about how the "official" prosthetic costing $40,000 are totally not a ripoff even though they can be replaced by $45 printed prostetics because each one is hand carved by highly skilled gnomes from their own bones and tied together with unicorn hair and anything else will kill the wearer in the first 5 minutes.

Re:biocompatibility

[Anonymous Coward]

... and? BPA is nothing naturally appearing, its an artificial substance added to the plastic to make it break less easily.

Re:biocompatibility

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, so it's BPA-free PLA?

The substitute they use in place of BPA is less toxic/less of a endocrine disruptor compared to BPA. It also leaches into water much more readily so there's a lot more of it in solution.

Disclaimer: I'm just some guy who did a lot of reading on this subject. This is definitely not medical advice. I have no credentials.

Re:biocompatibility

[Sarten-X]

So can you tell me what the long-term effects of wearing this $45 printed device are?

Is it weighted such that it pulls muscles awkwardly, causing pain after a few months of continuous use? Does the constant contact with skin cause any nerve damage? If worn during physical activity, does it create an additional risk of shattering or otherwise injuring the wearer or others?

Can you show test results indicating otherwise, even when the user may not have it attached properly? What resources are available so the user can be certain they're properly fitting the device?

Approved medical devices are expensive because they meet all applicable regulations, and have documentation to prove it. They've been reviewed and tested by experts in the field, who understand exactly what subtle problems to look for that are likely to cause harmful effects in the future. One of the primary principles of medicine is to do no harm. Can you assure patients that this 3D-printed model will be harmless?

Yes, you can buy a beat-up used car for $500. It will still accomplish the obvious goal of transporting you from point A to point B, but it's not going to be as good in the long run as a more expensive one.

Re:biocompatibility

[Anonymous Coward]

He's not a doctor, he's a "Animator/TechnicalArtist/MechanicalDesigner/TechnologyInnovator", and the goal was to make something that looks neat for kids.
A totally lame one made by actual medial professionals would probably be lighter, safer, more functional, more durable, etc. but that's not really the point of this.

Re:biocompatibility

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's the thing. Every one of these that I have seen has been custom fitted and designed around the wearer.

Can you tell me that every human, adult or child, would have one of those medically approved prosthetic devices?

How about users who have the $40,000 devices, who PREFER the 3d printed hands? They fit better and allow for more actions than the expensive devices.

If someone else prints it out of material FDA approved for implantation, would that make you happy?

Is there any way in which you can argue that these devices are not better, aside from pointing out symptoms that exist for the existing devices?

Re:biocompatibility

[sjames]

I can tell you nobody has ever thought it was all that important with gloves and watchbands and we don't have a small army of people who were nerve damaged by their casio. I can tell you that if it costs $40,000 and you don't have that kind of cash laying around, it might as well not exist at all. Are you claiming people are better off with nothing? Are you willing to say that to their faces? Sorry, you're not rich enough to have a hand?

Or consider canes. If a cane is used improperly, it can cause back shoulder and arm pain. Should we make canes cost $40,000 or should we just adjust them differently if things start hurting?

Imagine the disaster it would be for the economy if we all had to wear only medically approved clothes complete with $40,000 belts and $100,000 shoes. But OMG, what if the belt fails and their pants fall and cause them to trip and trigger a nuclear meltdown, millions of lives are at stake here! $100,000 is such a small price to pay in order to safely not go naked in public!

I imagine the kid will do what the rest of us do. If the hand starts causing pain he'll use it less until it can be adjusted. Meanwhile, unlike before, he has a functional prosthetic hand.

I'll bet that the $500 beater is infinitely more useful than a Ferrari to someone who will never be able to afford a Ferrari.

In other words, that looks like about $39,955 worth of FUD (and unicorn hair). Most people really can't afford that much FUD. Thankfully, I'm not in the market for a prosthetic hand, but if I was, I would at least try the $45 one first.

Re:biocompatibility

[sjames]

I have no idea about this device, but similar efforts in the same price range have been found to be more functional by their users than the expensive approved models.

Re:biocompatibility

[thatkid_2002]

While PLA is food safe, FDM (fused deposition modelling) objects are not safe for more than a single non-long-term use due to being relatively porus and impossible to clean properly.

Re:biocompatibility

[Anonymous Coward]

Since he isn't selling it, or even manufacturing it: many of the liability concerns you've described don't seem to factor in here. Does that make it an apples to oranges comparison? Probably so.

At the end of the day, maybe it is preferential for us to return to homemade prosthetics until the medical device industry does some soul searching and figures out how they can still turn a profit at a price which is competitive with DIY? It sounds like the level of hand wringing you're describing may not be a cost effective service they are providing to the market. If they can't sell their wares to the government without jumping through those hoops, is there a way they can still stay in business?

Re:biocompatibility

[wonkey_monkey]

so I'm going to go out on a limb

Too soon.

Re: biocompatibility

[Anonymous Coward]

Obvious troll is obvious

Re:biocompatibility

[coofercat]

So don't pick your nose with it more than once? Okay, got it - I'll wait until I'm 'well stocked' ;-)

Re:biocompatibility

[LifesABeach]

Which brings up an interesting topic, "Of the Spolls of stuff one buys for 3D Printers, which stuff would NOT be a good idea for a child to put in their mouth?"

Re:biocompatibility

[LifesABeach]

I'm thinking of folks that just some kind of surgery where they cannot lift more than 5 pounds. Now I find myself sketching a 3D Printed attachment they can strap on to themselves so that they can at least be able to get a dinner plate without "hyper extending" themselves. What's really curious is how heavy something is when you attempt to pick it up.

How do you measure weight of something by picking it up with your hand? Damn, pencil just got off-shored. Now I've gotta wait.

Re:biocompatibility

[LifesABeach]

I think that the $40K price here is based on Demand, and Supply. 3D Printing definitly increases the supply, and the Craftsman ship is transfered to learning Blender3D. But how does one measure an appendage to start designing 3D Printed Hand with partial Arm assembly?

Re:biocompatibility

[LifesABeach]

To coin a phrase by the character Dr. Alfred Lanning: "*That*, Detective, is the right question. Program terminated." My apologies to Mr.Asimov

Re:biocompatibility

[Anonymous Coward]

The $40k difference is due to the fact that Medicare / Medicaid / Insurance are willing to pay that price for an 'FDA approved' hand. So why should the company sell it for any less?

Re:biocompatibility

[LifesABeach]

I really don't understand your questions, but I have one myself, "Are you the assistant to your local Village Idiot?"

Re:biocompatibility

[Sarten-X]

I can tell you nobody has ever thought it was all that important with gloves and watchbands and we don't have a small army of people who were nerve damaged by their casio.

And I can tell you that nerve damage (especially around the fingertips) is important to glove manufacturers, especially concerning sporting gloves, where the risk of such damage is high with or without gloves.

As for watchbands, I actually do know a few people who've had allergic reactions to watchbands of various kinds, starting with myself. I can't wear a gold watch, because after a few hours my wrist turns red, and after an evening of wearing it my lower arm is covered in small red bumps. I have a lesser reaction to my gold wedding ring, but I've never bothered finding out exactly which part of the alloy it is that I'm allergic to. In discussions with others, I've met folks allergic to plastic and cloth watchbands as well as metals, some of whose allergies didn't show up until after months of use.

I can tell you that if it costs $40,000 and you don't have that kind of cash laying around, it might as well not exist at all.

That's what insurance is for. Sure, it's a slim chance that I'll ever need a $40,000 medical device, but that's why I pay into the pool. If I ever do need it and don't have the cash lying around, my insurance provider does. If I never do need it, then my premiums went mostly to somebody else in the pool who did.

Are you claiming people are better off with nothing? Are you willing to say that to their faces? Sorry, you're not rich enough to have a hand?

No, I'm saying that the cheapest options present more risks that have not been mitigated. I have no problem informing people of the risks they face, and I sincerely hope that a doctor would inform his patients of the risk associated with any treatment, regardless of the cost.

Or consider canes. If a cane is used improperly, it can cause back shoulder and arm pain. Should we make canes cost $40,000 or should we just adjust them differently if things start hurting?

For a cane, it's a different matter. Canes typically do not have prolonged contact with the wearer and their well-studied risks do not often cause long-term problems once the adjustments have been made.

Imagine the disaster it would be for the economy if we all had to wear only medically approved clothes complete with $40,000 belts and $100,000 shoes. But OMG, what if the belt fails and their pants fall and cause them to trip and trigger a nuclear meltdown, millions of lives are at stake here! $100,000 is such a small price to pay in order to safely not go naked in public!

...and what is the actual risk of that slippery slope? Certainly it's nowhere near probable enough that we'd need to regulate clothing as tightly as medical devices. If you're working with high-energy devices, however, the risk posed by clothing is far greater. I don't recall exactly which jurisdiction requires it, but I know that every piece of clothing worn at my local nuclear plant must be cotton. Cotton burns, while synthetic fibers usually melt. Though often cheaper, synthetic clothes increase the damage from accidents enough to warrant that small amount of regulation.

I imagine the kid will do what the rest of us do. If the hand starts causing pain he'll use it less until it can be adjusted.

By that time, the damage may already be permanent. That's one of the things that research would study before handing it off to an unsuspecting patient.

Meanwhile, unlike before, he has a functional prosthetic hand.

"Functional" prostheses are available for far less than $40,000, and typically are used temporarily while a primary device is being built or repaired.

I'll bet that the $500 beater is infinitely more useful than a Ferrari to som

Re:biocompatibility

[Sarten-X]

This guy comes up with something cool and you are shilling for the medical-gov't industrial complex.

Hardly. This guy comes up with something cool, and I'm wary of the claim that it will somehow overthrow the existing system, mostly because to informed observers, the current system isn't actually unreasonable (mostly, anyway). There are good reasons behind all of the seemingly-insane details, but they're not as obvious as "some kid is missing a hand".

In fact, I actually have to give quite a bit of credit to the designer of this particular device. On his website, he's not encouraging kids to try the thing or making any claims that it's something particularly special. Rather, he's asking for help from experts to refine the design and turn it into something that is fully-tested and documented. If he can do that and still keep it printable (by end users or even trained technicians... either would be a help), then we'll have a real boon to the state of the art.

I wish him the best of luck, but I also recognize that the obstacles he faces are a bit more realistic (and i daresay more difficult) than fighting a conspiracy theory.

Re:biocompatibility

[sjames]

And I can tell you that nerve damage (especially around the fingertips) is important to glove manufacturers, especially concerning sporting gloves, where the risk of such damage is high with or without gloves.

And yet, they manage to make functional sporting gloves without a 100,000% mark-up over the cost of a DIY version. The people working with the affordable prosthetics are also interested in not causing harm. They (and sporting glove manufacturers) just have a proper sense of proportion about it and a better understanding of the actual risks.

As for watchbands, I actually do know a few people who've had allergic reactions to watchbands of various kinds, starting with myself.

OMG, terminal wrist irritation. How long do you have? Oh, just changed watchbands and all's well? That sounds much smarter than getting a $10,000 FDA approved watchband.

That's what insurance is for.

That's a good one! You do know there's a lot of people with existing amputations who have no insurance, right?

By that time, the damage may already be permanent. That's one of the things that research would study before handing it off to an unsuspecting patient.

So, constriction bands around the viscera and the neck can be unregulated but a velcro strap around the wrist is likely to cause a permanent injury? B_U_L_L_S_H_I_T.

And I must say, one of us certainly doesn't get risk analysis but it isn't me. Risk analysis does not mean freaking out at even the barest hint of the possibility that someone may get a rash.

As for the FDA and risk analysis, they haven't a clue. They're the organization that doesn't get that short term terminal patients have already lost what they have to lose. At the same time, they approve drugs that can cause homicidal rage (which has resulted in deaths) as a barely effective aid to quitting cigarettes. I fully agree that for controlled poisons (drugs) and implantable devices some sort of regulation is required but frankly the FDA isn't it. The whole agency needs to be chopped up for parts and replaced.

Re:biocompatibility

[Sarten-X]

No, but in a previous job I did assist clinical researchers doing this kind of testing. The examples I gave are pretty easy questions to test for. The hard one is usually "Does this product increase the risk of cancer?"

Re:biocompatibility

[LifesABeach]

Then I withdraw my "comment" and respectfully submit a request for actuall evidence that supports your medical claims. I think any medical facts you bring to this discussion would be very useful.

Re:biocompatibility

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd have to differentiate chronic and acute exposure, and the different manufacturing method. It could be safe to drink out of for 10 minutes, but could irritate the skin if you were contacting it 24/7/365. Especially if there's some kind of allergy to the plastic or its decomposition products.

I doubt that, but it's always a possibility. I wish Pat the best of luck, though, it's an awesome idea.

Snark Bait.

[westlake]

Please do tell us about how the "official" prosthetic costing $40,000 are totally not a ripoff even though they can be replaced by $45 printed prostetics because each one is hand carved by highly skilled gnomes from their own bones and tied together with unicorn hair and anything else will kill the wearer in the first 5 minutes

I can't.

Because I don't have the money or resources to clinically evaluate a $45 prosthetic hand.

This I do know:

The poor have been milked for generations by frauds and fools marketing medical miracles at dime store prices. When the geek sees a buzz word like "3-D Printing" in a headline, his capacity for critical thinking goes south.

To test his computer models of neural control, Valero-Cuevas is using a very faithful physical system: cadaver hands. Hand surgeons help him connect the hands' tendons to strings driven by electric motors.

The activity of the motors is controlled by the neuron software, as if the motors were muscles themselves. This way the simulated neurons are confronted with the same problem the nervous system faces: controlling the hand as a marionette driven by complex muscles and tendons.

The goal is for the software and hardware to work in concert to control the cadaver hand the same way a healthy person can move his or her hand --- complete with stretch reflexes, muscle tone and compliance.

''We are studying the very fundamental mechanisms of how muscles have tone and how you modify that to get function, and how their disruptions lead to the pathological characteristics of hypertonia, spasticity and dystonia, which are very common in cerebral palsy, stroke and spinal cord injury,'' Valero Cuevas said. ''But we don't really know where they come from, and we're trying to understand that.''

The complexity in just one little finger

Each finger tendon is controlled by between six and 10 muscles, and in turn, each simulated muscle is controlled by a population of 256 independent neurons.

''The irony is not lost on us that we're combining one of the oldest scientific disciplines, hand anatomy, with some of the newest elements of ultra-fast parallel computing,'' Valero-Cuevas said. ''We're using this to answer central questions about evolution, health and disease, and how all these systems work.''

One application of this work is the design of better prosthetic hands, where there is still a major engineering challenge to make artificial hands that can be effective manipulators of objects. The most advanced current prosthetics are effective grippers, but the ultimate goal is truly dexterous manipulators.

''We see it as an impasse,'' Valero-Cuevas said. ''Over a century of trying to develop something that's better than the split hook prosthesis. We now have modern robotic hands and prosthetic hands that are amazing grippers, but they're not dexterous manipulators. They're great at holding things, but is it the Luke Skywalker hand that would be able to pick something up, reorient and operate it? Think of all the operations that are needed to use your smartphone with one hand.''

Perfecting a fully functioning prosthetic hand

Re:Snark Bait.

[sjames]

In this case, he must be really bad at milking since it was given free of charge.

I really have no idea what your quote has to do with anything, that tech is pure unobtanium, even at $40,000. The $40,000 model is nothing like that.

It's good that the work is being done, but it's not ready yet.

That one sideline says a lot ...

[Qbertino]

" ... (who can't all afford the cost of conventional prostheses) ..."

USA - the only supposed first-world country where children have to be able to afford a prostheses.
Creepy. ... Or actually f*cking outrageous if you think about it for a minute.

Re:That one sideline says a lot ...

[jellomizer]

Your right if I were European I would be outraged. A good portion of my earned money is being wasted on expensive equipment that the child will outgrow in a couple years.
Prosthetics are better spent for adults, as they can be kept longer, and they are mature enough to care for them. For kids the money should go to therapy to work around their issues.
I know people with stunted hands who have flawless penmanship and are able to prefrom most tasks inspite of their disability because they have been trained at an early age.
I know when we see a kid who is disabled we feel sad, but a prosthetic hand isn't the big helper people think they are.

Re:That one sideline says a lot ...

[tobe]

+1 from this Brit.

Re:That one sideline says a lot ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Jellomizer - stunted hands can use therapy and become much better at certain tasks...... but when a child is missing all the fingers on one hand then a combination of therapy and an inexpensive prosthetic hand is a much much greater benifit to the child.

Re:That one sideline says a lot ...

[Anonymous Coward]

You are a complete moron.

How the hell do you expect kids to learn to use their prosthetics if they don't get them until they're adults?

Hopefully you or a loved one gets told that you need to wait several years to get some medical assistance, because you're not important enough.

Fucking American assholes. The idiotic things you say boggles the mind.

Re:That one sideline says a lot ...

[netsavior]

Only adults should have hands? Fuck you.

Re:That one sideline says a lot ...

[Anonymous Coward]

You both have good points. Perhaps we should take a vote on the issue. Let's see a show of.. oh, wait...

Why PC World?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not just link to the source?

No!

[Anonymous Coward]

Goddamn these manly hands! :( Damn them!

Re:These hands KILL...

[halivar]

Also, polylactic acid will kill your child just as surely as a bloodthirsty jew.

A vacuous tautology, then.