ARLINGTON — Torrae Owen is 10 years old and knows how to build a working prosthetic hand using some fishing line and 3-D printed plastic parts.
It’s a family thing.
Her dad, Ivan Owen, helped design what’s believed to be the first 3-D printed partial prosthetic hand. Now he and his wife, Jen Owen, help run e-NABLE, an online community founded by the Rochester Institute of Technology. It’s an international effort to make it so anyone with access to a 3-D printer can create a simple, affordable prosthetic.
The Owen family received the national Daily Point of Light Award on Friday. The award, started in 1989, has honored more than 5,600 people who have changed the world through service.
Ivan Owen is a designer who manages the Makerspace lab at University of Washington Bothell. Four years ago, Richard Van As, of South Africa, saw his work on YouTube and asked Owen to help create a prosthetic finger. They built a metal prototype in eight months. A mother whose son was born without fingers asked if they could make something for him.
Kids can grow out of a prosthetic within six months. A 3-D printed hand is cheaper than other prosthetics and can be scaled up and reprinted later, Ivan Owen said.
“My hand was just about the same size as the little boy’s, so my dad did measurements with me,” Torrae said. “Now I can build one by myself.”
A printed hand isn’t nearly as advanced as artificial limbs available through medical professionals, Ivan Owen said.
“It’s a very simple, single-function device,” he said. “All it does is grasp.”
The simplicity allows for adaptation. People have tweaked the design to hold a violin bow for a little girl who wanted to learn the instrument or fan out a stack of UNO cards for a boy who wanted to play with his brother.
Here’s how it works: once a hand design is programmed in, a 3-D printer traces liquefied plastic into that pattern, stacking layer after thin layer on top of each other. The pieces of the hand are printed separately and then assembled. Fishing line is stretched from the fingers to the palm. The hand is Velcro-strapped onto a wrist or arm. When the user flexes the nearest joint, it pulls the line tight and forces the fingers to close.
After finishing the design in 2013, Owen and Van As decided to share it as an open-source file, meaning it’s available for use without infringing on patents or copyrights. That allows others to adapt and improve it, then share their own designs. They can be passed around the world in 50-megabyte files.
An online group formed with about 110 people in 2013. Now, there are nearly 7,000 people involved in e-NABLE. They’ve gone from one prosthetic design to a dozen. The cost of materials for printing and assembling has dropped from more than $100 per hand to $35. Advanced artificial limbs can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The e-NABLE network is used to connect those who need prosthetics with volunteers who print and build them. The Owens think the best longterm strategy is for people to build their own hands. They’ve heard success stories, including one boy who printed parts at a library and learned how to put them together through an online tutorial.
“The designs seem almost easier for kids than adults,” Jen Owen said. “It’s like this really cool Lego kit.”
Eagle Scouts have built hands to earn badges and schools have incorporated them into curriculums. Companies in Japan and the United Kingdom are working on full robotic arms made with 3-D printed parts.
The Owens are excited about the Daily Point of Light award but noted that there are many others who made it possible.
“It started in our family but now there’s this global family,” Jen Owen said. “What started in our garage is so different from what’s out there now.”
It’s impossible to track how many hands have been made because the designs are so widely shared. However, through e-NABLE they’ve confirmed at least 1,500 prosthetic hands have been printed in 45 countries, mostly for children.
The appeal to kids is critical, the Owens said. Children see the world through a different lens than adults. They focus on tasks, not intricate designs.
“They want to ride their bike and hold on with both hands or they want to eat a sandwich and hold a juice box at the same time,” Jen Owen said. “Adults are so focused on making the fingers better, but the kids are like, ‘Can you make me something to hold my popsicle?’?”
Young thinkers continue to expand the possibilities of 3-D printing. Limited access to printers and gray areas in health insurance plans still are barriers, but the Owens expect the technology to become more common.
“We live in a time with unprecedented access to knowledge,” Ivan Owen said. “Anyone who has an interest in this should experiment with it. The world needs people to do that.”
The Owens are inspired and humbled to see engineers and designers sharing their work without seeking a profit. There’s nothing wrong with making a living through innovation, they said, but some ideas can help a lot of people if they’re shared without strings attached.
“What’s been done out there is only a fraction of the need, but this is really a model that can be extrapolated,” Ivan Owen said. “That’s the fun thing about humanity is if you provide a set of building blocks and a road map, individuals can take it and do more with it than you or I ever could have.”
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.
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