12th January 2024
We have received a tonne of requests from the limb difference community for a functional partial hand prosthesis, so we put our engineers to work on some of the challenges the community is facing when it comes to prosthetic solutions on the market for partial hands.
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I’ve even been able to ride a scooter with both hands which is just nuts. – Mo, user 1
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Last year, we reached out to a number of partial hand amputees who asked us to create a partial hand prosthesis for them. We invited them to start co-designing and testing prototypes with our team. Together we have been working to enhance the level of hand movement and functionality available to people with partial hand limb differences.
By working closely with a pool of people testing the Hero Gauntlet, we were able to gauge how certain features performed under the strain of everyday life: “We designed the product in collaboration with users via lab testing, weekly diaries, and clinic visits. We were really excited to see how intuitive our users found the active operation mechanism, which meant that even the early prototype versions were able to open up new experiences for our users. It’s been especially great to hear how the look of the device has given some of our test users a confidence boost regarding their limb difference.” – Hellie Mutter, Hero Gauntlet Lead Engineer at Open Bionics
The gif below shows hand function of a partial hand user with no prosthesis and then hand function using Hero Gauntlet.
Are you ready to suit up? Be the first to try the Hero Gauntlet
Similarly to the Hero Arm, the new partial hand prosthesis – Hero Gauntlet will be a custom-made 3D printed device, suitable for a range of congenital and acquired partial hand limb differences.