Prosthesis

Engineers from Germany's Saarland University have taken a unique approach with their prototype artificial hand. It moves its fingers via shape-memory nickel-titanium alloy wires, bundled together to perform intricate tasks by working like natural muscle fibers.

Stumpy the box turtle had been short of a limb since the amputation of her injured front leg. But a group of fifth graders have put its school's 3D printer to use and produced a custom-made prosthetic inspired by a classroom chair, saving Stumpy from life with a lopsided hobble.

The ability of 3D printing to produce customized implants tailored to a patient's anatomy has opened up many possibilities in medicine, with 2014 turning up one world-first surgery after another. Let's take a look at some of the recent life-changing surgeries made possible by 3D printing.

A low-cost, programmable, 3D-printed prosthetic hand may soon change the lives of amputees in Ecuador. The hand costs just US$270 to manufacture, making it a small fraction of the cost of a typical prosthetic of this type.

While there seems to be new applications popping up everyday, no industry is poised to benefit from this 3D printing in quite the way medicine is. The latest groundbreaking treatment involves an Indian cancer patient who has had his upper jaw replaced with the help of 3D printing.

You probably wouldn't try using the same motorbike for both racing over rough trails and commuting on smooth roads, so ... why use the same prosthetic leg? That's the thinking behind the Moto Knee, a prosthesis that's designed for activities such as skiing, horseback riding, cycling and motocross.

Touch Bionics has unveiled the latest enhancements to its i-limb Ultra Revolution at OTWorld 2014 International Congress. Users can now set and assign different grips for different objects and configure the prosthetic hand via Android apps.

A young girl has been given freedom of movement for the first time thanks to a 3D printed exoskeleton made out of Lego material.

The Nike Sole is an attachment designed for use with Össur's Flex-Run carbon fiber running blades.

Film-maker Rob Spence has announced that his "Camera Eye" is now fully functioning.

Fraunhofer researchers have developed a robot input device that uses inertial sensors to detect movements in free space.

Two undergraduate students from Toronto's Ryerson University have created a prosthetic arm that is controlled by its wearer's brain signals, and powered by compressed air.