Prosthetic Arm with Feeling

http://www.livescience.com/43125-man-gets-first-bionic-hand-that-feels.html

Posted February of 2014.  Moving away from the cost of prosthetic arms, this video shows an arm that allows the amputee to have feeling again.  With electrodes being placed in the amputee's arm and touch sensors in the hand, the amputee could feel and grab objects properly.

Comparing $42,000 Myoelectric Hand to $50 3D Printed Hand

http://3dprint.com/2438/50-prosthetic-3d-printed-hand/

Here's a link to an article posted on April 20, 2014.  53 year old Jose Delgado Jr, has been using a prosthetic hand for over a year that costs $42,000 dollars.  Many people argue that the reason that these prosthetics are so expensive is because of how much more advanced and more comfortable they are for the amputee, so Jeremy Simon of 3D Universe wanted to meet with Jose to compare the $42k hand with his $50 3D printed hand.  After Jose had met with Jeremy, he said that the 3D printed hand had better functionality and that he preferred it to his current myoelectric hand.

Another Cheap Prosthetic Arm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02y8ZYduRvA

Another video that is a little more recent shows how well a prosthetic arm can be made for such a cheap price.  Like the last video, the arm uses parts made with 3D printing.  The arm in this video has a reduced amount of motors used to flex the fingers, from three to only one per finger.  Also this hand uses a smart phone as a substitute for expensive processing devices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfmNXPMjChs


This video was posted in August of 2013.  In my last article post I mentioned the high cost of prosthetics.  A 17 year old from Colorado, Easton LaChappelle, also noticed this problem and decided to do something about it.  He has created a high functioning prosthetic arm for a very low price.  His prosthetic arm was being made with 3D printers and cost no more than $300 to make

Brain-Controlled Prosthetic Arm. (n.d.).Flickr. Retrieved May 5, 2014, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/fdaphotos/5

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/back-future-world-diy-prosthetics/story?id=20726015

This video was posted in October of 2013.  The bombing at the Boston Marathon was a tragedy and made many Americans recognize the large number of wounded soldiers that are amputees.  It also helped show how advanced we have come in technology and in prosthetics.  A victim in the Boston bombing that lost one of his legs has the first thought powered prosthetic leg which helped him to climb a 103 story building, the tallest in Chicago.However there is a problem with these prosthetic devices. They are very expensive, costing up to $50,000.

History

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/wooden-legs-and-duck-feet-a-brief-history-of-prosthetic-innovation

Here is a link to an article that shows how far prosthetics have come, and also where they came from.