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And taking the Gold for most adorable user of an exoskeleton is two-year-old Emma, who was born with a rare disease known as arthrogryposis, which makes it impossible for her to raise her arms without any external assistance. Thanks to 3D printing, though, she can now slip on her “magic arms” to crush people lift blocks and play to her heart’s content, whilst melting the hearts of everyone else. Bless.
A hospital in Delaware devised a durable mobile plastic exoskeleton, which is made up from the same stuff that Lego is made of, and enables Emma to make use of her arms in different ways. Thanks to 3D printing, they can also come up with a brand new exoskeleton every time she outgrows her current one, and they can also print off parts straight away if one breaks. Check out the video above to see it in action, and grab a tissue, as you may get weepy. [VentureBeat via UberGizmo]
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Holy crap that’s awesome! I’ll be Adam Jensen soon enough, just you wait!
She didn’t ask for this.
Just wonderful!
I’m a big guy, one of the standard glory in ultra-violent video games 20-somethings that we have now, and that literally made me well up near the end. Amazing story, we need to get more government investment in this stuff now! Every hospital should have a printer and engineer on staff ready to produce things like this for anyone they can help.
The scope of 3D printing as grown exponentially over the last few years and 2012 is going to be the year that we see this technology really take off in the mainstream and it’s fantastic to see that this growing industry is being embraced by the medical profession as a real solution. This is just the beginning for 3D printing in the medical profession and the extent of the technology is growing every day. For example we can now 3D print MRI scans so that blind mothers or fathers to be can interact with the scan in a way they couldn’t before, and prosthetic limb technology has come on leaps and bounds with the help of 3D printing. All of this technology and more will be on display at the 3D Printshow in October and I would encourage everyone to come and see the mind-blowing extent of this technology: http://www.seetickets.com/tour/3D-PRINTSHOW