I have copied this over from another O&P Forum as I believe it shows how not all Prosthetic components need to be expensive.

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Hello, my name is Aden Díaz Nocera and I’m from Argentina. Here in Argentina we do not have commercial developments of upper-limb myoelectrical prosthetics, so the only way to have access to this kind of prosthesis is importing them and the prices are really high to some people. Following the idea that every people should have access to a prosthesis (or anything) that may help them, a development of a low-cost open-source upper-limb myoelectrical prosthesis has begun two and a half years ago, with the goal of share all of the technical information of this development.

During the development, a new goal came onto the workshop: to develop a Training System to train the future user of the prosthesis to have accurate control of the muscle he/she is going to use to command the prosthesis. At this time an upper-limb (over the elbow) myoelectrical prosthesis has been developed. This prosthesis (called EMP ElectroMyoProthesis) has six grades of freedom with servos: one for each finger and one for the elbow.

Also the Training System is working. This system is a software developed in LabView reads the myoelectrical signal which is already amplified and filtered, from the serial port, plot it in a graph and moves a 3D model of an arm on the screen when the signal amplitude is over an edge set by the user.

In this website: www.lifesi.com.ar you will have access to the technical information of the developments, including the code of the Training System. I hope this will be helpful. “Medicine and Bioengineering progress could be consider real achievements for Humanity only when every people have access to its benefits and stop being a privilege for minorities.” – René Favaloro (Argentinian Medical Doctor)

Best regards,

Aden M. Díaz Nocera
Life Integral Solutions