Icexpress, an Icelandic prosthetic company based at Pretoria's Innovation Hub, has announced South Africa's first sustainable prosthetic solution, the Touch Bionic i-Limb hand.
This is the first upper limb prosthetic device with five individually powered digits, which looks and acts like a real human hand, allowing a variety of grip patterns, due to separate motors on each finger.
The i-Limb is a joint initiative between Icexpess and Touch Bionics, a Scotland-based company. Gaurav Mishra, Business Director at Touch Bionics, says: "This technology has been developed as a number one solution to amputees worldwide to make mobility easy for them. This technology has moved along into the digital age from the previous analogue technology, thus resulting in next-generation prosthetic devices that are lightweight, robust and highly appealing to both patients and healthcare professionals."
Deon Gouws, former employee of the US military, lost his upper right limb in Iraq, and is i-Limb's first prot'eg'e. Johan Snyders, Operations Manager at Icexpress, demonstrated how the sensors reacted to Gouws' muscle movement to allow him to "use his fingers".
"It is great. This will change my life completely, says Gouws. He is due to have his bionic hand fitted by Icexpress.
The i-Limb was officially launched to market in the US in July 2005 and is now available in 25 countries worldwide. The hand is battery operated and there has been no change in the fitting process, which is open to any amputee from the age of 13.
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