I created The Luke Hand project in 2015 to help accelerate R&D for open source bionics.
Objectives:
- Elevate global awareness about the unmet needs of people with hand amputations
- Support the development of open source bionic devices that drives their utility up & price down
- Develop an open source community that inspires pioneering global R&D bionics work
Results:
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- Created and mobilized a cross-functional team of 3D artists, CAD designers, data scientists, mechanical engineers, bionics educators, & entrepreneurs
- Orchestrated the contribution of working code & CAD files to The Luke Hand's open source repository
- Supported the creation of 3 functional prototypes
- Presented our open source R&D work in Toronto & London
- Led 2 Autodesk's Technical Summit teams
- Collaborated with UC Berkeley and Seattle Pacific U. on 2 successful R&D projects
- Created a thriving & supportive Facebook community with >11,000 members
Life has a way of waking you up and showing you what's truly important.
When I learned that my son would be born with only one hand, it opened my eyes, as someone who has two hands, to a whole new dimension of accessibility needs that I had never imagined before.
It became obvious to me that technology is failing people with hand amputations. The only bionic hands currently on the market offer only one of two choices:
1. Limited utility at an exorbitant price, or
2. Extremely limited utility for a moderate to cheap price
In this failure of technology in meeting this significant – and now very personal – human need, I discovered a deeply meaningful design challenge.
And so, I began researching, sketching, and team-building...
Conveniently, I worked at Autodesk's Pier 9 Workshop at the time, which had rightfully developed a reputation as Maker Heaven, so finding talented technical collaborators was easy.
Inspired by Luke Skywalker's dexterous bionic hand, I organized our growing collective around the banner, The Luke Hand – an open source project with the mission to help make science fiction science fact for people with hand amputations.
We started out with the ambitious goal of designing a hand with the functionality of a human for a 4-year-old within four years. Many supremely-talented and well-connected people joined the cause (you can read more about it on Medium). While we haven't yet achieved our goal (nor have any other companies, for that matter), we have catalyzed the creation of 3 functional prototypes.
To learn more about The Luke Hand, check out the post on Autodesk's blog - The Luke Hand – From Disabled To Super-Abled.
Or check out our GitHub repo. All our work is open source and free for the forking...
