My name is Eric and I recently had a son whom was born without fingers on his left hand as well as a shortened thumb.

I am a Mechanical Engineer and have always been interested in design and innovation. Now having a son whom will grow up with the difficulties of life with one hand. I would like to throw my abilities into the mix of modern prosthetics.

my ultimate goal is to create a device that gives my son as close to natural motion and use as possible. Now given the advancements in this age and technology there are many options available though all have limitations due to one reason or another. It is my ultimate goal to create a hybrid device using both mechanical and myo electric or other formats of nerve control system. My hopes of combining these two technologies is to give a wider range of control inputs as well as giving mechanical feedback or a simulation of touch and force.

I have been inspired by several designs primarily by a man named Ian Davis whom has designed his own fully mechanical prosthetic that offers very natural and quick motions. Though with the use of electrical signals and controls there is much room for improvement as well as reducing some of the mechanical complexity in his design. It is very nice but leaves room for many pinch points that I have thoughts on improving.

I so intend to reach out to Ian as well as other designers and companies to assist in my efforts of design.

In the end this is my hopes to help fund my research development and prototyping to create the best life I can for my son. Unfortunately everything costs money these days and I can only support so much at a time and am looking for additional funding to help in getting equipment for research as well as paying for parts and components.

lastly it is my intention to make all my designs and research to be open source in hopes my technology can be used to assist others