One of the really practical uses for 3D printers is in “printing” prosthetics in dirt-poor nations where war has damaged so many children.
CNET recently covered a child named Daniel in South Sudan, without arms as a result of poorly aimed government ordinance — whose story interested a US philanthropist Mick Ebeling who enlisted a California 3D printer manufacturer, an MIT scientist, Intel Corporation and the inventor of Robohand.
(Robohand was the brainchild of a South African, Mr. Richard Van As, who lost fingers in an industrial accident. He first tried to build a hand from hardware parts, but finally used a MakerBot Replicator 2 to build his Robohand, which he has made Open Source so others can improve on the design.)
Two years later, and Daniel can feed himself with a $100 printed prosthetic that is certainly not the sophisticated marvel we see being developed for our severely wounded — but for $100 and a six-hour printing it holds great promise for the tens of thousands of damaged people..
Further, 3D printing will improve and get the prosthetics much more proficient and even cheaper.
I think 3D printing has a huge, huge future in many areas..
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Filed under: Culture, Economics, Education, Healthcare, Media, Politics, Technology | Tagged: 3D printers, Intel Corporation, Mick Ebeling, prosthetics, South Sudan |
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