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Japan’s functional prosthetic hand Handiii beats funding goal in five days

Takeshi Hirano 2014.11.29

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Tokyo-based Exiii, a company that develops functional prosthetic hand Handiii, started its crowdfunding campaign on Japanese crowdfunding site Kibidango on Monday, and has reached the funding goal of 1 million yen (about $8,400) in only five days. See also: Japan’s Exiii unveils teaser page for functional prosthetic hand In view of Japanese startups developing assistive devices, Whill, the Japanese startup behind the smart wheelchair under the same name, got its start by raising money on Japanese crowdfunding site Campfire. Having introduced its first prototype in late 2011, Whill was qualified by 500 Startups to join its incubation program and subsequently secured two major funding rounds from investors. The company aims to ship 2,000 wheelchairs by the end of 2015. The Exiii team is developing the second-generation model of the prosthetic hand series called Handiii Coyote. At the Maker Faire event recently held in Tokyo, their clinical trial user Mr. Morikawa demonstrated the prototype. He is expected to use the device developed through the crowdfunding campaign. Exiii CEO Genta Kondo spoke about their work: While the previous device needed to be operated by our development team rather than the user,…

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Exiii, a company that develops functional prosthetic hand Handiii, started its crowdfunding campaign on Japanese crowdfunding site Kibidango on Monday, and has reached the funding goal of 1 million yen (about $8,400) in only five days.

See also:

Japan’s Exiii unveils teaser page for functional prosthetic hand

In view of Japanese startups developing assistive devices, Whill, the Japanese startup behind the smart wheelchair under the same name, got its start by raising money on Japanese crowdfunding site Campfire. Having introduced its first prototype in late 2011, Whill was qualified by 500 Startups to join its incubation program and subsequently secured two major funding rounds from investors. The company aims to ship 2,000 wheelchairs by the end of 2015.

Mr. Morikawa demonstrates Exiii Coyote at Maker Faire Tokyo.

The Exiii team is developing the second-generation model of the prosthetic hand series called Handiii Coyote. At the Maker Faire event recently held in Tokyo, their clinical trial user Mr. Morikawa demonstrated the prototype. He is expected to use the device developed through the crowdfunding campaign.

Exiii CEO Genta Kondo spoke about their work:

While the previous device needed to be operated by our development team rather than the user, the new device can be controlled entirely by the user. Thanks to Mr. Morikawa, who demonstrated the device by controlling it himself, it drew great interest from the audience at the Maker Faire event.

Mr. Morikawa only spent about 10 minutes to learn how to use the prosthetic hand. Thanks to Mr. Morikawa’s demonstration, I think that he will help us close the gap between handicapped and non-handicapped people.

There are 53 days more to go until the crowdfunding campaign closes, so it will be interesting to see how much money Exiii manages to raise.

news

Japan’s Exiii unveils teaser page for functional prosthetic hand

Junya Mori 2014.10.27

See the original story in Japanese. Handiii (previously known as Handie) is a prosthetic hand developed by an engineering team called Exiii, which wants to make people’s daily lives more enjoyable with robotics and designs. The team published a teaser page for a crowdfunding campaign for the device on Kibidango, a Japanese crowdfunding site. See also: Handie: An affordable, functional prosthetic hand, made in Japan with 3D printing The Exiii team has set the concept of this product as a ‘casual option’ aiming to make people consider it as something more common like a watch or a shoe rather than a assistive product. They have won the second prize at James Dyson Award 2013 and also the top prize at Gugen hardware contest in Tokyo. The team has to date developed four generations of the prototype (see picture below). But there’s a huge gap between the demonstration and practical application. That’s why they are currently working toward practical use of the device in partnership with potential users and medical institutions; the crowdfunding campaign is also part of these efforts.

See the original story in Japanese.

Handiii (previously known as Handie) is a prosthetic hand developed by an engineering team called Exiii, which wants to make people’s daily lives more enjoyable with robotics and designs. The team published a teaser page for a crowdfunding campaign for the device on Kibidango, a Japanese crowdfunding site.

See also:

Handie: An affordable, functional prosthetic hand, made in Japan with 3D printing

The Exiii team has set the concept of this product as a ‘casual option’ aiming to make people consider it as something more common like a watch or a shoe rather than a assistive product. They have won the second prize at James Dyson Award 2013 and also the top prize at Gugen hardware contest in Tokyo.

The team has to date developed four generations of the prototype (see picture below). But there’s a huge gap between the demonstration and practical application. That’s why they are currently working toward practical use of the device in partnership with potential users and medical institutions; the crowdfunding campaign is also part of these efforts.

news

Handie: An affordable, functional prosthetic hand, made in Japan with 3D printing

Takeshi Hirano 2013.12.17

See the original article in Japanese Before we go any further, please check out the movie above. What you’re looking at is one of the many prototype devices developed for the recent Gugen hardware contest held in Tokyo on December 7th. Its developers are a team of three (a software engineer, a mechanical engineer, and a designer) who came together for this contest and developed this device. Users can create a functioning prosthetic arm by connecting the device with a smartphone, sensors, and a 3D printer. Affectionately named ‘Handie’, the prosthetic arm won contest. Gugen is an event focused on identifying business-oriented hardware prototypes, and provides reward to top talent. A member of its executive committee, Yasunori Okajima, says the number of entries reached almost 200 this year. Before participants were mostly those who enjoy creating electronics as a hobby. But this time, however, I see many more participants creating things that are business-oriented. ‘Makers’ is more than just a buzzword Chris Anderson is a genius at creating buzzwords. He finds the structure of latest trends, and expresses that trend with one powerful word to facilitate an entire movement. When he published the books The Long tail and Free, even…

See the original article in Japanese

Before we go any further, please check out the movie above. What you’re looking at is one of the many prototype devices developed for the recent Gugen hardware contest held in Tokyo on December 7th. Its developers are a team of three (a software engineer, a mechanical engineer, and a designer) who came together for this contest and developed this device. Users can create a functioning prosthetic arm by connecting the device with a smartphone, sensors, and a 3D printer. Affectionately named ‘Handie’, the prosthetic arm won contest.

Gugen is an event focused on identifying business-oriented hardware prototypes, and provides reward to top talent. A member of its executive committee, Yasunori Okajima, says the number of entries reached almost 200 this year.

Before participants were mostly those who enjoy creating electronics as a hobby. But this time, however, I see many more participants creating things that are business-oriented.

‘Makers’ is more than just a buzzword

Chris Anderson is a genius at creating buzzwords. He finds the structure of latest trends, and expresses that trend with one powerful word to facilitate an entire movement. When he published the books The Long tail and Free, even though the concepts were not brand new, many businesses then followed those trends. His most recent work, Makers, is no exception. Here in Tokyo, 3D printers appeared in many places all of a sudden, and media too have begun paying attention to this trend. A Makers boom suddenly started, but it soon cooled off.

What we need is not just a temporary trend or buzzword, but more initiatives like Gugen that try to tap into the inherent potential of the concept.

Three components for hardware creation

There are three components typically associated with developing hardware or electronics:

Create molding: exterior design.
Create software: the fusion of online and built-in software
Create electronics: open-source hardware such as Arduino

Because we can easily see and touch exteriors, 3D printers quickly became a sort of symbol for Makers. And this process of creating something from scratch is definitely exciting.

Handie’s exterior can be created at a reasonable price thanks to 3D printers. With data and printers, Handie can be created anywhere. However, there are two other important factors involved in building Handie:

All the software is smartphone apps, which cuts down the cost.
Motors and sensors are not customized parts. By putting general parts together, the team could create this device much faster.

Of course, Handie is not the kind of device anyone can develop. The most amazing part is its mechanical design. While multiple motors are typically needed to move fingers, the team managed to do it with only one motor.

And while not everyone can develop this level of device, as long as the developer has the core idea and the experience, they can create advanced devices like Handie.

Potential for business

Why is this new way of creating hardware and electronics getting so much attention right now? One of the reasons is that it represent significant potential for business expansion. When it comes to creating something entirely, the important thing to keep in mind is this notion of expansion.

Handie could never have been built without smartphone software. Yet with only smartphone apps Handie cannot be built. This is what I mean when I talk about expansion. As a result of such ideas, the shift from two dimensions to three dimensions has now accelerated.

For those who are interested in what kind of hardware can be developed by individuals, we’d like to list some of the other entries in the Gugen contest 1.

Squama

Squama is a screen that lets users can control transparency. At the contest, the developer mentioned that the panel can make an office more open while it also protecting privacy. In addition, it has an energy-saving effect in heated rooms.

Universal Earphones

This earphone automatically recognizes if it was put into your left of right ear, and then proceeds to play the right sounds.

Handie

As mentioned above, it aims to provide reasonably priced prosthetic arms using just a 3D printer and smartphone apps. It’s only for the people who lost a hand or the finger, it could be used as “a third arm” for everyone in the future.

Telemba

Telemba is a video-chat Robot created by connecting android devices and other electronic parts with a Roomba (robotic vacuum cleaner). It was quite amazing to watch the team members participated in the awards ceremony through Telemba.

PocoPoco

PocoPoco is an intuitive and sophisticated music interface. Each part was carefully chosen to realize elegant movement of the interface. PocoPoco played a short performance at the event, drawing a significant the audience.

You can see the whole list of entries on their website. ↩

Handiii

Japan’s functional prosthetic hand Handiii beats funding goal in five days

Japan’s Exiii unveils teaser page for functional prosthetic hand