Christian Siefkes has written a
great post on some of the issues surrounding open hardware and the differences between hardware and software. As one of the comments below notes, the possibility of well-documenting prior art is absent from the analysis, and is another avenue for preventing patenting of design ideas.
I think that this a…
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Added by Jon Kuniholm on December 9, 2009 at 1:20pm —
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While I've complained about the fact that many of us are using hooks strongly resembling that designed by and still bearing the name of David Dorrance, who
patented the split hook in 1912 and whose
company survi…
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Added by Jon Kuniholm on November 11, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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A tip from Brad Veatch of ADA, the developer of the
LESA prehensor (not yet available).
A little teflon pipe thread tape underneath the rubber bands on the hook when you replace them will reportedly increase the life by eight times. Brad apparently has data to support this…
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Added by Jon Kuniholm on October 18, 2009 at 1:00pm —
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Congress has made available $112 M in FY09 for medical research to advance treatment and rapid rehabilitation from orthopaedic injuries sustained by military service members during combat or combat-related activities. The Department of Defense(DoD)Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs(CDMRP) Peer Reviewed Orthopaedic Research Program (PRORP) task in FY09 is to find and fund innovative research that has the potential to make a significant impact on improving function, wellness, and o…
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Added by Jon Kuniholm on October 1, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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I've spoken before about the need for a standard for prosthetic/robotic arm (or leg) control, preferably one also adopted by a larger industry. University of New Brunswick Fredericton (UNB)'s
AIF UNB Hand Project has settled on a CAN-based communications system, using the established standard for automotive communication. Under the name of a consortium that has long sought to standardize upper extremity prosthetic control, the…
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Added by Jon Kuniholm on September 25, 2009 at 2:21pm —
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You may remember the controversy before the Beijing Olympics last year surrounding South African sprinter
Oscar Pistorius. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) had
initially ruled that the sprinter, with bilateral congenital below-knee limb absence, could not compete at the games. An independent study comm…
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Added by Jon Kuniholm on July 5, 2009 at 11:00pm —
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Some of you may know that I was involved in an effort to climb
Mt. Denali (McKinley) with a group of disabled veterans. Details about the trip can be found here:
http://www.theveteranscoalition.org/operation_denali/
I was forced through the wise decision-making of our guide,
Kirby Senden, to abandon the climb on the 14th of June, having reached just over 16k feet and the top of the…
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Added by Jon Kuniholm on June 16, 2009 at 10:54pm —
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My article on the tough realities of designing next generation prosthetic arms and the philosophy behind the Open Prosthetics Project is up on
IEEE Spectrum online, and will appear in the March issue of the magazine. There are a couple of edits I wasn't thrilled with, but in general I'm pleased.
To quote the sidebar about how everyone can help with OPP:
"While it’s most natural to want to help within your area of expertise, it’s not a requi…
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Added by Jon Kuniholm on March 1, 2009 at 2:33pm —
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I'm going to repeat myself (mostly) from the post I added to the main site; you never know who is looking at what.
For those of you who haven't seen it, our efforts to improve on the well-loved features of the out-of-production Trautman Hook have been profiled in
Scientific American Magazine this month. In order to avoid any possibility of confusion with the old Trautman brand, we're going to refer to our new and improved de…
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Added by Jon Kuniholm on September 22, 2008 at 8:09pm —
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"Lead users," are consumers (individuals or companies) who spur innovation in an industry by contributing innovations often of a greater value and at a faster pace than the companies that produce the products they use. Their innovations are often freely shared and eventually incorporated into products. Far from being an idealist fantasy, lead user innovations can be incorporated into the R&D strategy of a nimble company, enabling quick identification and anticipation of consumer needs. What…
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Added by Jon Kuniholm on January 10, 2008 at 6:04pm —
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Some of you may have seen the message that I sent to everyone on the network requesting feedback on opening the network to Google searches and RSS feeds, and to casual, unsubscribed viewers. I have received some feedback, all positive, and I intend to make the change, barring strenuous objections from anyone within the next week.
As I mentioned, I had originally made the network open to anyone to join, but closed to non-members in order to encourage people to share personal medical det…
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Added by Jon Kuniholm on January 10, 2008 at 1:29pm —
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I uploaded a couple of designs to Cafe Press and created a
storefront there to sell OPP and SDA shirts and what not. The first two are just the basic logos, but I am open to suggestions and criticism, and please send any other ideas for shirts that you folks have my way, and I'll try to get it together.
One idea I might get up next would say, "Can we talk about something else?" Not that I have, lately...
Five dollars of eac…
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Added by Jon Kuniholm on December 22, 2007 at 3:58am —
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Thanks for checking out the Open Prosthetics Network. I realize that this represents yet another in what's starting to seem like too many tools for enabling collaboration and the free exchange of information about the challenges faced by amputees and the design of better prostheses.
After over a year of letting offers to volunteer, and requests for help or information languish in my in box, I'm hoping that this tool, in particular, helps people make connections that solve problems for…
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Added by Jon Kuniholm on November 12, 2007 at 11:20am —
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