Prosthetic Hand For Playing Baseball

Swinging a baseball or softball bat is hard enough with two good hands; with just one hand, it's been generally considered out of the question. Ryan Dailey, a teacher at Hudson High School in Hudson, MA -- who had designed the original e-NABLE prosthetic hand last year -- gathered students together last year in order to 3D print a prosthetic hand for a middle school girl. This girl, however, really wanted a prosthetic that would allow for her to play sports and swing a softball bat, requiring an update this year. Working with a team of students, Dailey added to the design he had created last year to get the hand working from basic functions through aesthetics. The students designed using Autodesk Inventor and Creo Parametric, and the hand's 8-9 3D printed parts were made using a MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer. The hand, designed to be the top hand in a bat swing, seems to work well. Read more details about the process and function of the hand in the full article: http://3dprint.com/56298/baseball-bat-swinging-hand/


Below is a photo of the 3D printed prosthetic hand gripping a bat:
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/upload.../baseball3.jpg