Samantha Payne of Open Bionics spoke at Big Omaha 2016 about her company’s mission to create affordable, open source 3D printed bionics, their work at the Disney Techstars accelerator and rethinking what a human hand can be. She also discussed developing Iron Man, Frozen and Star Wars themed bionic hands for children.
“The point of all of this is to make prosthetics cool,” said Payne. “It’s to help these young kids know their differences are cool. It’s what makes them unique.”
The branded bionic hands also allow for a different kind of story than the typical clinical one.
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“Instead of going through occupational therapy, they’re going through Jedi training,” said Payne.
The company has perhaps become a little too successful in making bionic hands cool.
“When we released the Disney hands we had so many people commenting on Facebook saying, ‘I’m considering chopping my arm off for one of these,’” said Payne.
At the end of the video Payne shows off a live tech demonstration of Open Bionic’s bionic hand.
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