Third Thumb Prosthetic

What are the options of people on this:

This seems like an art project so it will probably never see a commercial release (I believe this thing should cost 15$ and I would buy it) and the author have not seen to release schematics. Which is sad.

Comments

  • edited April 2018

    I like it. I doubt the price would be only $15 but I hope they either offer it commercially or release the schematics. I'm sure someone could reverse engineer it and make one for their self. I expect to see some homemade versions of it before too long.

    The thumb itself shouldn't be that hard to make. The motors, sensors, and controller would be harder but maybe not that bad. I haven't experimented with bluetooth at all but that part could be done with longer wires.

    daniclodedesign.com/thethirdthumb

  • It looks like a plastic frame with some muscle wire and a controller/battery unit. You could probably easy make one for $15 depending where you're sourcing parts, and how much access you have to fabrication tech, honestly.

  • Funnily enough, I'm actually working on something very similar to this except with myoelectric functionality (muscle controlled) and using electroactive polymer bending actuators rather than what looks to be wire and motors in this one. Will let you know how it turns out.
  • Not directly related, but still an interesting development on this front:
    [https://www.marcteyssier.com/projects/mobilimb/]

    I feel that the MobiLimb could be easily reverse engineered as well. There is a bit more documentation on the actual design (down to the model of servos being used). It's driven by an Arduino, so coding for it should be a snap. The design features 5-DOF, rather than just the 2 provided by the Third Thumb. Also, it looks like he's developing a small collection of end effectors, like LEDs and sensors.

    It sounds like the API will be accessible, so control signals could come from other stimuli than a smartphone, similar to the foot switches employed by the Third Thumb.
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