A former Paralympian has been fitted with a bionic hand that can be upgraded with new moves and gestures from anywhere in the world.
Australian swimmer Jessica Smith said the device was “amazing” and she chose to have it despite having a traumatic experience with a prosthesis as a child.
The Nexus Hand is made by British company Covvi, based in Leeds, and its Bluetooth function allows its experts to update it remotely via an app.
Like other bionic hands, it converts electrical impulses from arm muscles into movements powered by the device’s motors.
“The fact that we can change some of the things the customer wants remotely is a really powerful thing and a first in the market,” said Covvi chief executive Simon Pollard.
Other prosthetic hands can be controlled via the app, but Mr Pollard said his was the first to be able to talk to a single device.
Ms Smith said updates to hand functionality can be added quickly.
“A few kids asked me if I could do different hand gestures, some polite, some less polite,” she said.
“I asked Covvi this morning, and I know it will be done in the next few hours.”
The swimmer, who competed in the 2004 Paralympic Games, had a prosthetic when she was young, but an experiment with a boiling kettle burned it to 15% of her body.
The bionic hand can be used with a glove
“There’s always been an association between the fact that this prosthetic aid didn’t actually help, it created the most traumatic event of my life,” she said.
However, she decided to have the Nexus Hand installed at age 37 in April, and now her three children are in awe of their “half human, half robot” mom.
“I’m not trying to hide who I am,” added Ms Smith, who now works as a children’s speaker and author.
“I add and expand who I am by being able to access technology that has never been available before.”
Covvi said it hopes to increase monthly Nexus hand production to 100 and has signed 27 global distributors.
