E-Nable prosthesis

 

Individual project, as part of a study semester in the Netherlands.

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Developement of a new prosthesis model for the association E-Nable who 3D print prosthetic hands to children without fingers or hand. They offers an open source community that connects families in need of a prosthesis with volunteers who can 3D print and assemble  a custom prosthesis for the child.

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The dutch branch of the association wanted new specific models to allow these children to practice certain activities more easily. I chose to work on a prosthesis made to use a computer.

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The concept

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Since a regular computer mouse requires finger movements that are not accessible to these children, I reconsidered the movements associated with the main functions to navigate on a computer: right click, left click, and scroll.
 

Since every volunteer must be able to make the model at low cost, I had to think of simple concept. The idea is to take the electronic parts of any cheap computer mouse and mount them in the prosthesis.

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The child can keep the same cuff used for his normal prosthetic hand and replace it with the computer mouse one when needed.

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This projet needed a lot of prototyping and testing. It made me progress a lot in my 3D printing and electronic welding skills