A Smartphone Dock For Your Arm? Why Not?

Why not that is, if you have a prosthetic arm. Although it’s hard to believe we haven’t seen this before, [Trevor Prideaux], according to [The Telegraph’s] article, “has become the world’s first ever patient to have a smartphone docking system built into his prosthetic arm.”

[Trevor] was born without a forearm, and, as he puts it, he’s used to adapting to things.  However, he thought others might be struggling with the same problem, especially those that become disabled later in life. Once their help was secured, Nokia and the Exeter Mobility Centre got to work on his new limb and produced a prototype in five weeks!

[Trevor] is quite pleased with his new phone docking system. Texting especially is much easier and safer, and the phone can be removed when needed for making calls. We love to see hacks like this where people enhance their abilities using technology! For another hack helping those with disabilities, check out this wheelchair elevator/winch made for a non-accessible apartment.

via [reghardware.com]

20 thoughts on “A Smartphone Dock For Your Arm? Why Not?

  1. I think this is a great idea. No reason to hold onto the phone with your other hand, and using a bluetooth headset means you could carry a box or whatever while still using the phone. Seems that the phone might be more useful if you could swivel it into a vertical or horizontal position, which would be a bit more complicated.

    Also, I don’t know how expensive that prosthetic is, but I know they’re quite expensive. At the rate most people seem to be replacing their phones, your arm would be out of date within a year or two. How often do these normally get replaced?

    1. Smartphones are upgraded every few years, but the underlying USB power/data won’t change for a while. To that end, new dock could be installed with each new phone, but the prosthetic arm could be kept. Even with the switch to USB3, that would just involve some fairly simple re-writing.

  2. This is neat but I am not sure how “newsworthy” it is. Or hackish for that matter. The idea was well executed but I guess I don’t see how amazing of an idea this really is?

  3. Needs some kind of thermoelectric generator to convert waste body heat up against the prostetic into usable power for the phone. Also, on the point of what happens when he needs a a new phone- why not have the phone cradle section made from a lower cost material and removable for easy replacement to accomidate a new phone? If I had a friend or accquantance who was down a limb… but no, even with my heckling nobody lost an arm to the woodchipper this year… perhaps 2012 will yeald some test subjects….

  4. Very cool.
    Not only that, he can “I’m the first!” Double cool whammy!
    He seems like a guy that is comfortable in his own skin so to speak. And I’m really glad he got the help he asked for from the other companies.
    A lot of them would have just passed on it.
    Good publicity there, and perhaps future tech for them. I like it all the way around.

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