SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
Dani Clode is a grad student at London's Royal College of Art (RCA) and her latest creation is something called The Third Thumb: a 3D-printed prosthetic that does exactly what its name suggests....
Dani Clode is a grad student at London's Royal College of Art (RCA) and her latest creation is something called The Third Thumb: a 3D-printed prosthetic that does exactly what its name suggests. "The origin of the word 'prosthesis' meant 'to add, put on to,' so not to fix or replace, but to extend," Clode told Dezeen. "The Third Thumb is inspired by this word origin, exploring human augmentation and aiming to reframe prosthetics as extensions of the body."
It's absolutely unnecessary stuff, and I love it.
The thumb straps on to the side of your hand, and connects to a bracelet containing wires and servos. The wearer controls it using pressure sensors that sit under the soles of their feet. If they press down with one foot the thumb will make a grasping movement, with these instructions sent to the wrist unit via Bluetooth. It sounds a bit fiddly, but Clode says people pick it up pretty quickly. It's no more complex than, say, steering a car and operating the brake and accelerator at the same time.
I doubt it will catch on, but I think it's interesting. Human augmentation of any type may be fraught with perils (and not generally condoned by society) but I still think the topic is fascinating fodder for both science and science fiction.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday July 13 2017, @08:05AM (1 child)
If this was to move from prototype to actual product the control mechanism that appears to sit on the wrist would have to be a lot less intrusive, anything larger then a standard clock size is probably to large. That said as noted it seems somewhat unnecessary, I'm not sure what an extra thumb per hand would really accomplish or if my total grip would become better, perhaps if it came with some kind of Kung-Fu-grip and I can become like some kind of GI Joe doll. But with that in mind for people with some form of issue or a poor grip either from age or disease this might be a really good thing.
Waiting for this to catch on with the prosthetic-hipsters so it can blow over and then finally trickle down to us normal folks.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 13 2017, @12:09PM
Probably a whole lot better to "replace" a weak thumb on the other side than to try to work around the existing one.
🌻🌻 [google.com]