Participatory prosthetics

In January of 2005, my friend Jon Kuniholm was ambushed while serving with the Marines in Iraq. His right hand and forearm were lost in the explosion (which killed the soldier who had been standing next to him). Jon is one of many service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with less limbs than they brought over. But this time, tragedy picked on the wrong guy.

Even before his tour of duty in Iraq, Jon was studying engineering and developing innovative robotics. After becoming an amputee, Jon helped to found the Open Prosthetics Project (fantastic tagline: "Prosthetics shouldn't cost an arm and a leg") which works to foster collaboration between the designers, users, and potential funders of prosthetic devices.  They use a wide range of online tools including a wiki, Google group, and the social site Instructables to involve anyone interested in contributing to the effort. I think the Open Prosthetics Project is a great application of open source principles and also a great way to explain those principles in a non-software context.

Recently, the Utne Reader featured Jon in a series about design and disability. Here he writes about the wide gap between the futuristic concept of what prosthetics could be versus what is available and useful today:

Ever since the first few amputees returned from Afghanistan in 2001, media coverage has often emphasized the medical care that saves their lives, and the advanced prosthetics they wear, with phrases like bionic arms and thought control.

The chasm between what people think is out there and what is actually available to an amputee has existed for years. The hype isn't limited to the popular press: Scientific research and scientific literature repeat these claims. The first myoelectric prosthetic arm was demonstrated in 1955. That presentation included a powered hook that looks remarkably like one I got from Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In 1965 a New York Times headline proclaimed New Process Will Help Amputee to Control Limb with Thought. In 2007 a Popular Science article described a prototype robotic hand as mind controlled and dexterous enough to play the piano. The headlines have stayed the same, but, as I discovered, so has the technology. These prosthetic concept cars have historically had little effect on what most arm amputees actually wear.

[...]

The body-powered prosthetic split hook I chose instead of the myo arm has been characterized by some as little more than a rubber band and a stick. But the surprisingly useful mechanical design has endured for close to a century. Body-powered prosthetics have cable controls that you move by shrugging and tensing your shoulders, an action that opens and closes a simple hook or hand appendage. After trying everything else, I opted to wear this arm.

- Utne Reader - Building a Better Arm: An Amputee Helps Engineer His Own Future

Below: Jon playing guitar with his son before the accident (2002); and with friends and family 19 months after becoming an amputee (2006).