Meet Kayden, a local 14yr old young man and close family friend, who was born with no left forearm and hand.

The National Health Service (NHS) is an amazing service in the UK, however their prosthetic provision is both basic and expensive (to the NHS).

Surely with modern technology, we can not only improve the lives of young people like Kayden but also demonstrate how we can do it more cost effectively than current options.

This talk details how I set about building on the wonderful work of the OpenBionics team to provide Kayden with an alternative to the NHS prosthesis.

We’ll discuss:

– How 3D printing of parts for the hand can be much more effective (cost and function) than fibreglass moulds

– Using home 3D printing we can create a viable articulated hand

– Using off the shelf commodity IoT boards from Adafruit can be used to program the hand (and how this is more viable than alternative approaches)

– Creating a Xamarin application to connect via Bluetooth and provide customisation and control options for the hand

– How this option can reduce the costs from £000’s to several hundred £s and is being done as an Open Source project which will feedback to the bigger project.

Attendees will learn about and see demos of:
– The 3D printed hand and related components
– Programming of the IoT board and sensors
– Creation of the Xamarin application to customise the hand.
– Bluetooth connection options.

Please note: Kayden and his family have given express permission to use his name and images for this talk.