More Beautiful Prosthetics

Tom McDonald’s post on the poignantly beautiful prosthetic limbs of yesteryear reminded me of the slightly more contemporary story of Bespoke Innovations:

Bespoke Innovations™, Inc. was founded in 2009 by an Industrial Designer and an Orthopedic Surgeon whose mission was to bring more humanity to people who have congenital or traumatic limb loss.

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Each of our bodies is unique, as are our tastes and styles. Humans are anything but one-size-fits-all, and we want to recognize that fact. We achieve this by creating products that allow our clients to personalize their prosthetic legs.

Just to be clear, the folks at Bespoken aren’t making prostheses directly. They’re making “fairings,” or casings/custom panels that “fit over existing prosthetic legs.”  And they’re pretty pricey: $4K-$6K, or so. But the results are really cool looking.

And speaking of amazingly cool things involving prostheses, this story’s astonishing:

A soldier injured in battle said he is determined to make a success of his new life with a bionic arm he can control with his thoughts.

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Cpl Garthwaite is now getting used to controlling his new arm and hand. With his nerve system rewired, he can feel his hand in his chest and by thinking of moving individual fingers, he can move his bionic hand.

That’s beautiful, too.