Page 12 - aruba-today-20170624

A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 24 June 2017

‘Superhero’ 3D printed hands help kids dream in Argentina

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO ventions. Instead of repri- The project uses volunteers Mexico, Egypt ... doing squared paper.
Associated Press manding him, his parents around the world who own things that they couldn’t Kaori wanted a light blue-
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina signed him up to a week- 3D printers to print the piec- do before,” Tubaro said and-white Princess Elsa
(AP) — Being born with- end workshop where he es and assemble and de- about the project, which model, but since they ran
out fingers can be tough had free range to experi- liver the hands. They can is partly financed by dona- out of those, she got a
for any child. Getting new ment. Along the way, he cost as little as $15 com- tions and award money. bright blue and red one
ones — especially red and
blue superhero themed
digits — has made 8-year-
old Kaori Misue a vibrant
playground star.
Flexing her wrist muscles to
bend the plastic fingers,
she can work with tape
and stickers at an arts and
crafts class. She can ride a
bike, skip a rope and bake
pastries with her mom. Her
amazed friends have even
begged to borrow the
3D printed hand, which
looks a little like a cheerily
colored Transformers toy
strapped to her wrist.
“It was magical,” her mom,
Karina Misue, said. “The
confidence it gives kids is
tremendous. They’re using
it with pride.”
Hundreds of Argentine kids
like Kaori who were born
without limbs are now able
to write, play sports and
make music thanks to low-
cost prosthetic hands de-
vised by Gino Tubaro, a
21-year-old inventor whose
work was praised by Presi-
dent Barack Obama dur- In this May 30, 2017 photo, inventor Gino Tubaro poses for a picture with a 3D printed prosthetic hand he invented in Buenos Aires,
ing a visit to Argentina last Argentina.
year. Associated Press
Tubaro’s “Limbs” project
is part of a trend of open- began earning awards for pared to sophisticated de- “Seeing a kid wearing a that she likes to match with
source 3D printing technol- his designs. signs that are priced up to hand from Iron Man, Bat- her outfits.
ogy initiatives around the When he began using 3D $15,000. Some of the piec- man or Princess (Elsa from “Now it’s got these colors
world. They include the printers, the mother of a es can be interchanged to Frozen) gives us so much and it looks like Wonder
nonprofit e-NABLE orga- child who was missing a fit a specific purpose: from pride,” said Tubaro, who Woman,” Kaori said after
nization that groups vol- limb asked him if he could playing pingpong to grab- divides his time between she used her 3D printed
unteers to provide hands design a hand for her son. bing a fork or riding a bike. the project and his sec- hand to pick up a cupcake
and arms to those born Tubaro delivered it in 2014, If children outgrow a ond-year studies in electri- baked by her mother. “It’s
with missing limbs or who when he was still in high model, it can be easily re- cal engineering at Nation- just missing yellow, but it
lost them to war, disease school. placed, perhaps with a dif- al Technological University doesn’t matter because I
or natural disaster, and Today, more than 500 peo- ferent theme. A black Bat- in Buenos Aires. can wear something yel-
the Build It Workspace stu- ple, mostly children, have man design can hurl plas- Misue said she found out low.”
dio, which teaches people received similar prostheses tic disks. A red and gold about Tubaro’s project The walls of Tubaro’s Atom-
how to use high-tech print- and 4,500 more remain on Iron Man version can shoot when she saw Obama ic Lab workshop in Buenos
ers. a waiting list. Basic designs rubber bands. praise his work on TV. She Aires are decorated with
Growing up, Tubaro re- are custom modified to “It’s a wonderful experi- filled out a form requesting printed drawings of hands
members breaking apart fit the needs of each user ence because we’re get- a hand at his atomiclab. by Leonardo da Vinci next
home appliances to try with the help of orthope- ting photos of kids using org site and sent a photo to designs for Iron Man ro-
to turn them into new in- dists. the prostheses in Thailand, of her daughter’s hand on botic hands. q