Could a prosthetic hand follow commands directly from the brain? Could a wheelchair user go paragliding? An attempt will be made to answer these questions at the STEAM Fabrikarium, a hackathon starting this Saturday in Andheri, aimed at enhancing the lives of persons with disability.
The Fabrikarium will bring together 15 persons with disabilities, 50 makers — artists and design enthusiasts, engineers, and doctors — and 20 mentors. The participants with disability are not just there as test subjects; the makers want to understand clearly the challenges they face so that their innovations are grounded in reality. And artists — the A inserted into STEM, the abbreviation for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — are part of the process to ensure that utilitarian design also looks good. The event is a collaboration with My Human Kit from France, and under the umbrella of Bonjour India 2017–2018.
Nico Huchet, founder of My Human Kit, which develops inventions for persons with disability, is himself an amputee, and has designed and made (with a 3-D printer) a nerf gun as a prosthetic for his right hand, one that is an extension of him, in that it needs no mechanical trigger and is fired by impulses from his brain, read by sensors. Vaibhav Chhabra, founder of Maker’s Asylum, the event’s organiser said: “I noticed how Nico’s confidence soared after he showed off his innovative prosthetic. That is something that I would want people with disability to experience: to see their disability as something truly unique.” He showed a photograph of Mr. Huchet climbing a steep incline using a prosthetic that incorporates an ice-axe, as proof. Blueprints for three of the five projects have already been developed: a forearm prosthesis controlled by muscle sensors, modifying 3D printers into Braille embossers, and a low-cost electric wheelchair. Mr. Chhabra hopes to improve them into robust prototypes during the five days. “We bought a basic electric bike for just ₹10,000 and we are hoping to develop it into an affordable [motorised] wheelchair,” he said.
A fourth project is creating cost-effective prosthetic limbs that are aesthetically pleasing. And the fifth goes beyond everyday needs to blue-sky thinking: wheelchairs that integrate with paragliders. “I love paragliding myself and I wondered if there was a way to make it accessible to those who are bound to wheelchairs,” he said about the project for which aviation giant Airbus is lending its engineers.
Is five days enough to create something ready to use? Mr. Chhabra is clear that it isn’t, and that is why the work will be put into the public domain. “We want to document the process, what went wrong what actually worked, so that it is easier for the next person trying to improve these ideas,” he said, adding the ultimate aspiration is to have an open innovation university.
