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A young Japanese company Exiii introduced a working prototype of the Handiii prosthesis, printed on a 3D printer. Exii has existed since 2013. The company was founded by former Sony employees Gentu Kondo, Hiroshi Yamaura, Tetsuya Konishi and Akira Morikawa, and now she is more than ever ready to move to the stage of full-fledged production of her products. For the past two years, the guys have been developing a high-tech bionic arm prosthesis worth about $ 300 and even won first place in the Gugen hardware competition in Tokyo and second place at the James Dyson Award 2013.
According to the developers, they intend to release a product that will not be perceived as an insanely expensive medical device, but as part of our daily lives like watches or glasses. According to them, only 1% of Japanese people who need dentures wear them because they are extremely expensive. In this prototype, three modern technologies are involved, thanks to which it was possible to reduce the cost of the prosthesis to a minimum. Last week, the Exii team visited the SXSW festival in Texas, USA, and made a splash there.
While most bionic prostheses are equipped with expensive sensors, the principle of the Handiii Myoelectric myoelectric arm is based on the use of a smartphone with a special application that receives signals from the muscles of the amputated arm. Then these data are transferred to the prosthesis. A huge amount of money was saved due to a carefully thought-out hand design, assembled from parts printed on a 3D printer (for the convenience of repair and adjustment). In addition, each finger is driven by just one motor.
Sensors can be seen in action in this video (filmed at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas).
As we already said, the Handiii prosthesis costs only $ 300, and it does not differ much from its expensive counterparts. The client can choose and adjust color, texture and even functions himself, and all thanks to 3D printing technology.
The video below shows how Akira Morikawa and other developers demonstrate the capabilities of the prosthesis. As you can see, the hand easily captures objects of various shapes weighing up to 500 grams.
At the end of 2014, Exiii even launched a very successful campaign on the Japanese crowdfunding platform KibiDango. She wanted to raise 700,000 yen (about $ 7,500) to produce handiii prototypes for her two employees. As a result, her account turned out to be five times the amount planned - more than 3,500,000 yen (approximately $ 29,000). All these funds were invested in the development and production of hand prostheses for people who need them. Exiii also plans to make the Handiii prosthesis free.
