Stock Photo - Several months ago, a client commissioned Gordon Jackson, an industrial design student at Philadelphia University, to build him a functional prosthetic hand, as he was born without a left hand and was tired of the standard claw style prosthetic he'd been using for years. He explained that medical grade prosthetics are prohibitively expensive, with a good one ranging upwards of $10,000, and tasked Gordon with designing and producing a cost effective prosthetic for him. He wanted it to be based on the prosthetic used in Metal Gear Solid V, giving it a futuristic look, as he observed that people are often uncomfortable with his claw style hand, and human-like prosthetics often come off looking tacky and cheap. Gordon saw this as a great opportunity to further his experience in design, and also a way to benefit more than just this client, as he planned on designing the hand to be almost entirely 3D printed, meaning anyone would be able to replicate one for themselves at a relatively low cost. After several months of work, the hand is now complete and works great! It's a mechanically simple design to ensure durability and ease of use, and the total cost of all the materials came to less than $100. While there are several other 3D printed prosthetic hand designs, this one differs from the rest in several key ways. Most importantly, it uses a passive grip system rather than an active grip like all the others, meaning at rest it will keep hold of any object in its grasp and only requires user input to open the hand. Normal 3D printed prosthetics are open at rest and require the wearer to keep the hand closed with what's left of their wrist in order to grip an object, which can become uncomfortable rather quickly. This design also incorporates a full forearm enclosure, making it much more stable to wear and usable for people without any wrist at all. Lastly, this is a scale-able design, so it's easy to modify it to fit any wearer. Gordon is going to be releasing all the design files for free on his website next week, once all the designs have been completed, so anyone can download them and print one for themselves. Featuring: Gordon Jackson Where: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States When: 10 Jan 2017 Credit: WENN.com