Modern prosthetics: Improvising to make things better

Mahendra Pitale does not have to worry about keeping everything aside to answer his mobile phone anymore. Pitale lost his arm in the 2006 train blast at Jogeshwari. His left hand amputated and he now looks to use a prosthetic arm in the days to come, which will allow him to not just use the mobile through his prosthetic arm, but also have a charger, use it as a pointer for presentations and hold things.

Pitale was among the participants who gave their needs to 50 odd engineers and designers gathered to improvise on existing prototypes and turn them into physical capabilities for Divyang. All of this was part of the five day S.T.E.A.M (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) Fabrikarium series that was presented by Maker's Asylum at their work place in Andheri.

S.T.E.A.M, a five day project, is held under the umbrella of Bonjour India, an Indo-French collaboration. Around 65 participants and 20 mentors from India and France were participating in it. Some budding engineers and designers were trained on how to use equipment such as 3D printers, laser cutters, basic electronics, and power tools, and will learn how to solve problems by practical methods rather than through standard rote learning practices. All work was done by taking open source material, a practice where people keep their innovations open for others so that they can be improved upon.

"We are making a bionic hand, cosmetic hand, electronic wheelchair, flying wheelchair and a Braille printer from the normal printer," said Ishaan Rastogi, curator of Maker's Asylum.

In case of the bionic hand, the parts were divided into three - socket, wrist and hand, which could be changed for different purposes.

Jeet Sanghavi, Varun Nayak and Anand Velandy, all students who participated to take innovations from open source ahead, worked on different parts of the bionic hand.

"He needed the hand as a holder, a laser pointer while someone else for playing the guitar. We tried to work that out," said Velandy.

A separate band is placed to help people sense if an object they are holding is hot or cold. "The red light would indicate it is hot, while a blue light would tell the person it is cold," said Rastogi.

A flying wheelchair, made basically for paraplegics. "We felt why not have something through which even paraplegics can do paragliding. We are looking to have something that is a lot cheaper as compared to what is in the market. The one is tandem (for two people) and solo," said Avi Malik one of the other participants.

Braille printing was being done with the use of 3D printers to aide the Divyang.