A new outlook for prosthetics

The prosthetics limb world is being revolutionized, with one of the newest inventions coming from a 20 year old college student. Jonathan Naber, a student from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana has developed a prosthetic arm aimed for usage by people in third world countries who were previously unable to afford prosthetic limbs. Prosthetic limbs in the U.S. can cost around $10,000; Naber’s invention will be available for around $30.00. Naber invented a prosthetic arm which is made solely out of recyclable materials. His idea is to be able to mass produce parts which will be pre-assembled and put into kits with simple instructions of how to put together and attach the limbs. His invention does not use a prosthetic socket, as prosthetic arms always have. It fits to the body in a completely different way. I think it is so amazing that we are engineering new techniques for prosthetics in a way that makes them available to people who need them, but would otherwise not be able to afford them. It is also really neat that we are able to use all recyclable materials in our prosthetics today.

http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2010/03/31/monroe/special_feature/0331cla-naber0.txt