Prosthetists at the Exeter Mobility Centre, Royal Devon & Exeter hospital have designed and created the world’s first prosthetic arm with a built in dock for a smartphone for patient Trevor Prideaux.
Mr Prideaux was born without a left arm and after identifying the use of a smartphone as incremental to his quality of living, decided to approach several smartphone manufacturers with the idea of somehow integrating it into a prosthesis.
Mr Prideaux’s requests unfortunately fell on deaf ears, but after a recent upgrade to the Nokia C7 smartphone, his passion for the idea grew again. He approached Opcare clinicians based in the Exeter Mobility Centre. Senior Prosthetist, Stephen Gallichan alongside Technician, Les Street and Undergraduate, Sarah Bennett then produced a prototype using a mould of the smartphone. The phone sits neatly in the arm though is still easy to remove if required.
Trevor commented:
"Now when I get call I can either hold my arm up to my ear or put it on speaker phone. I can also take it out if I need to. Texting is also much easier and a lot safer.”
"I am hugely grateful to the people at the EMC. This is a leap forward which has helped me out a lot and can also aid others."
New trans-radial prosthesis incorporates smart phone docking point.