Boost - Prosthesis assist device
2021
Industrial Design
Designed by Zekai Huang
This prosthetic is designed for teenagers with finger disabilities between 6-18 years old. At present, there are about millions of physically disabled teenagers (<18years old) in the world, which brings difficulties to their lives and their families. The existing teenagers's prosthetic assist devices on the market have the problems of high price, long customization cycle, need a lot of training, and cannot meet the rapid development of teenagers' hands.
There are approximately 760,000 disabled children (6 - 18 years old) in China with finger disabilities. The aim of the design is to create a low-cost prosthetic that can be adjusted to accommodate hand changes in adolescents with growing disabilities.
The bending of the wrist drives the tightening of the cable, thereby affecting the movement of the prosthetic palm. When the wrist is in a naturally relaxed state, the posture of the prosthetic palm is the same as that of a normal palm.
After constantly testing the structure, we decided to use fabric + cotton thread + 3D printing hardware + silicone to form the prosthesis, which not only ensures the comfort of wearing but also the practicality of the function. （The above model is part of the prototype）
The main body of the prosthesis is 3D printed, with numbers on the edges of each part guiding the user to install it. Uniform silicone joints allow users to easily assemble or replace damaged parts by simply pushing the joints from the side into the grooves of the corresponding parts.
The prosthesis uses 8 elastic silicone joints of the same specification. The joint can automatically rebound and adjust back to the default gesture when the prosthesis is bent while keeping mute.
Four independently adjustable pins keep the prosthesis in a natural gesture at all times. In the same time, five Velcro straps allow the user to quickly put on and adjust the prosthesis.
A wire harness from the wrist section connects the four fingers through pipes in the body of the prosthesis. The transmission system composed of silicone and wire harnesses makes the prosthesis almost free of sharp parts or parts that are easy to fall, which ensures the stability of the prosthesis in use.
