A new prosthetic hand named YouBionic has been created by Italian technology designer Federico Ciccarese, which he envisages will one day be available to be 3D printed at a wearers home and easily upgraded when new parts are developed or software updates are released.
Ciccarese imagines the day when a software update for the YouBionic prosthetic hand will be available to download and install in a similar way to how we update software on our smartphones at the current time.
Currently the development of YouBionic is being pushed forward thanks to the Arduino platform that provides a micro controller that uses electric impulses to help move the digits on the YouBionic prosthetic hand. Ciccarese explains :
“There’s electricity in all muscles of our body,”-“When the brain sends an impulse to the muscle, the sensor reads it and translates it into a number proportional to the contraction and then sends this message to the microcontroller.”
“I started this device as a prosthetic, but it can have many applications,”-“I hope I can do something for humanity like the Iron Man.”-“On Twitter, I talked to a father of a 5-year-old who is missing five fingers. He is waiting for me to finish this, so his son can try it.”
For more information on the new YouBionic jump over to the Federico Ciccarese website for details.
Source: Digital Trends
Filed Under: Concepts & Design, Hardware, Technology News, Top News