Bridging the Skills Gap: Kids Create Confidence
11.12.2015
Recently we spotted a story in Cutting Tool Engineering (CTE) magazine titled Lego Prosthetics Build Confidence and we were enthralled. The article relates how Carlos Arturo Torres Tovar, a student at Sweden’s Umea Institute of Design, created an award-winning design that allows children with a missing limb to use a prosthesis outfitted with a LEGO® system. Named the IKO Prosthetic System, this helps kids with a disability overcome fear and rejection, and provides a bridge between a playful experience and an everyday functional prosthetic system.
Kids Create Their Own Prostheses
According to Tovar, “There were many problems I was trying to understand; the bad perception that kids have around prosthetics, the deep focus that companies have on engineering and not the human part of a kid in disability, the social isolation of a kid because of his condition and how hard can be for them to build a strong self-esteem. My idea was not to make a traditional prosthetic, but to propose a system that was flexible enough for kids to use, hack and create with by themselves and with their friends.”
Prosthesis Becomes a Toy
According to CTE, “The arm function is similar to traditional prosthetics… but it features a twist-and-lock modular design that’s easy for kids to assemble. A special motorized adapter allows the standard three-finger gripper to be swapped out for one made entirely of LEGO. By essentially turning the prosthetic into one of their toys, Tovar hopes his IKO arm will empower children by improving their everyday lives, while boosting their confidence when interacting with other children who might feel uncomfortable.”
Child Builds the Arm of His Dreams
In this must-see project video, a child in Bogota, Columbia uses the IKO to create a Backhoe LEGO set and a Spaceship LEGO set that function seamlessly on his arm. It must be amazing for Tovar to see the child bursting with excitement while playing with his design. He says, “This project has a global intended market. Partnering with strategic companies would allow the system to offer a bigger flexibility and more accessible prices to the public.”
The project was part of Tovar’s degree work and done in collaboration with CIREC (Columbia) and LEGO Future LAB (Denmark).
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