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Katelyn Vincik's parents said their daughter was born with a left hand that was not fully formed. While Katelyn has always known her left hand was a little different than her right, it has not slowed her down.
"She's very determined, she does everything," said Kimberly Vincik. "It's never held her back."
[...] Katelyn has been on a waiting list for more than a year for a functional prosthetic. "It has not been FDA-approved. It's basically tied up in approval and legal," said Katelyn's father, Casey.
Her parents said Katelyn was offered a cosmetic prosthetic hand, but the little girl found it too heavy and generally disliked the way it looked.
[...] Determined to find a hand for Katelyn, the family drove from Victoria to Clear Lake and met with Branch Librarian Jim Johnson and Innovation Lab trainer Patrick Ferrell.
"We let them know we don't know anything about prosthetics. We've never done this before. We just know how to run a 3-D printer," said Ferrell. The fact the lab never printed a hand didn't stop Ferrell and a team of volunteers from diving into the project.
[...] The Vinciks said Katelyn took to her new hand like she'd had it all her life. Kimberly Vincik said some of Katelyn's first words after receiving the hand were directed to her younger sister, Lacey.
"(She said) 'Lacey, we can hold hands now,'" Vincik said.
The polylactic acid material used to make Katelyn's hand was even dyed in Katelyn's favorite colors: pink and purple. The prosthetic attaches to Katelyn's arm and a pulley system opens and closes the hand when Katelyn bends her arm.
Pretty amazing stuff these days eh?
Here's a link to the library: http://www.hcpl.net/content/jocelyn-h-lee-innovation-lab-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @09:34AM
If this is just about looks, I'm not cheering. While I realize that any visually obvious handicap in the modern world is very nasty where perfection is the par for the course. But this is something we should strive to change, reality is not perfect.
If it actually helps her to do things, then it's marvelous and I'm all for it. Also, this is where 3d printing shines, custom odd jobs that require unique features and thus can not be mass produced.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Saturday August 20 2016, @09:36PM
The hand does function. In a few of the photos she is shown holding things with it.
In other cases, not only are the printed hands 1000 times cheaper (literally) , they provide more function than the expensive approved prosthetics.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @11:47PM
I realize that any visually obvious handicap in the modern world is very nasty where perfection is the par for the course. But this is something we should strive to change, reality is not perfect.
You worry about changing that. Any argument that this girl should not be given something that helps her with self-esteem and to not be picked on is bullshit. Its not her job to fix the world. You are the one complaining, you go fix it.
(Score: 2) by steveha on Thursday August 25 2016, @06:27PM
The article doesn't say, but I'll bet you the hand opens and closes. Take a look at this, which shows a guy wearing a 3D printed hand. The video shows him opening and closing his fingers. He said that for most purposes it works better than his $42,000 motorized one.
https://3dprint.com/2438/50-prosthetic-3d-printed-hand/ [3dprint.com]
Note: $50 refers to the cost of goods; if the people working on the hand had charged for their time, it must have cost a few thousand bucks. I'm sure that the $42K number is not just cost of goods, but total cost, covering the salaries of all the people who worked on it, and a profit for the company, and the regulatory burdens of complying with US government regulations. Nonetheless, the $50 prosthetic hand is a really big deal.
We aren't at the true cyborg stage with these devices. The fingers don't individually move according to the wishes of the person. It's a simple mechanical thing: move the arm the correct way and the fingers open, move it the correct other way and the fingers close. The one in the video above works by moving the wrist. Not as good as a real hand but still useful.
This sort of prosthesis works much better when the person has more of their arm. People who lost their arm above the elbow can't have such a simple prosthesis, but even there people are working on low-cost hacks to solve the problem. Here's one:
https://3dprint.com/90944/3d-printed-elbow-prosthetic/ [3dprint.com]
(Score: 2) by steveha on Thursday August 25 2016, @06:35PM
The article doesn't say much about how the little girl's new hand works, but if you watch the video at the top of the news story (the click2houston.com link) you can see her opening and closing the fingers on her new hand. So there you go, it's functional.