wisn12 interview and viola bow modification

Shea and Steve visited the DCRL yesterday for an interview with WISN12 news. It was so good to see them. Shea is getting so big; it's like watching my own kids get older by the minute. She played her viola and showed me the modification that Ranee made to her extra bow holder. It seems that she has increased wrist movement which allows her to maneuver the bow better. I need to start on a new version of the bow holder that incorporates Ranee's design. 

karuna's swimfin

Teresa asked me if I might be able to make a new swimfin for Karuna. He has outgrown his old swimfin so I borrowed his old one so I could take a look at what he has been using. I modeled this the other day while I was cutting parts for the new Chancellor's medallion. I printed this prototype to see if this might work as a 3D printed alternative to what he had. I need to make a few adjustments, but it's pretty close for a first try and a quick turnaround.

karuna's trumpet adaptive device

As a part of the 2015 Summer Fellowship Pilot Program of the Enable Community Foundation, Digital Fabrication and Design Graduate Candidate, Caitlin Driver, conducted research at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Digital Craft Research Lab into 3D-Printed adaptive devices. Driver designed an adaptive device that enables 10-year Karuna Levie to hold and play a trumpet. Karuna was born without fingers on his left hand. The prototype device was designed for Karuna’s Bach model TR300 trumpet. The design files for the trumpet adaptive device are available to anyone for download and 3D printing as a result of Driver’s research. Through the Enable Community’s online Google+ community, the boy’s mother, Teresa Levie, was connected with University of Wisconsin Milwaukee professor, Frankie Flood, who served as Driver’s advisor on this project. Driver’s research was conducted at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Digital Craft Research Lab at the Peck School of the Arts where professor Flood conducts research.

The research conducted by Driver was funded in part from a $600,000 Google.org grant, Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities, awarded to the Enable Community Foundation to further advance the Enable community's innovative work on 3D-printed open-source prosthetics and adaptive devices.

More details about this project, including photos, can be found at Driver’s blog, http://digitalfabricationanddesign.com and the 3D files for the Adaptive Trumpet Device can be downloaded at the following 3D file sharing sites:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:966165 or

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/trumpet-adaptive-device

About the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Digital Craft Research Lab:

The Digital Craft Research Lab’s goal is to foster innovative, creative research in the areas of design, craft, and art by combining advanced digital technology with traditional craft practice in an effort to educate students for the future. The DCRL fosters interdisciplinary design research, material research, and innovation through making. It is envisioned as a facilitator for partnerships between UWM researchers and regional businesses, nonprofits, arts organizations, other universities and schools.

About Enable and the Enable Community Foundation: 

The e-NABLE community is an open community founded by Jon Schull in 2013 to crowd-source the design, fabrication, and dissemination of 3D-printed prosthetics for children and others missing fingers or hands. The volunteer community has grown continuously since then, and has already delivered hundreds of devices to recipients in at least 37 countries. The Enable Community Foundation was founded in October 2014 to support the mission and operations of the e-NABLE community. The community's public-facing website is http://enablingthefuture.org. Their nexus for collaboration is a Google plus community with thousands of members, at http://bitly.com/e-nable. More information about obtaining a device, volunteering, partnering, donating, or sponsoring can be obtained by emailing info@enablingthefuture.org.

karuna's dovetail trumpet holder

Caitlin's Enable Fellowship is wrapping up. She has been working on a trumpet holder for Karuna. She has done an amazing job with this project. 

The piece that fits on the trumpet fits so nicely. To secure the piece, it's just a matter of snapping the large plate onto the valve and then sliding a bottom piece on that locks it to the trumpet. She then designed a hand and gauntlet that have a multi-postion dovetail disc that interfaces with the trumpet dovetail. We will be able to make other attachments that interface with this dovetail. 

Karuna wants a swim fin for the dovetail hand in addition to the trumpet device. The nice thing about the trumpet component is that Karuna can leave the trumpet dovetail attached to the trumpet even while the trumpet is in his trumpet case. He is able to put on the new hand and gauntlet and then he pull out his trumpet and simply slide the trumpet onto his hand. I hope to redesign Shea's bow holder so she doesn't always have to have the bow and arm piece permanently attached to each other. It should cut down on her running it into things or it sticking out of a bag in an awkward way. 

We did a test fitting two weeks ago and it seems to work really well. Caitlin has strengthened some of the hinge pivots and she should be able to release the files on the DCRL Thingiverse page soon.

karuna's trumpet

I rough shaped Karuna's trumpet attachment two days ago. I still have some refinement to do and I want to scan this piece to have as a model, but the general shape is there. I'll add some velcro strapping so that I can fully secure it to the trumpet and then I'll have to make the socket that attached to Karuna's hand/arm. I should be able to get something to him over Spring Break next week.

karuna's trumpet: thermoplastic

We went to early service today (even with the time change), dropped Jill at home afterwards so she could run, then the kids and I picked up supplies for school at Home Depot, and then ran to the studio to drop things off. I brought some thermoplastic home so I could do a quick molding of Karuna's trumpet before we met Teresa and Karuna today at Mayfair. I should be able to make Karuna a nice trumpet support from this piece. I looked at the angle that he holds his arm when we dropped the trumpet off. I just need to do some cutting, shaping and then create a nice palm socket that he can insert his hand into.  I'll do a scan of all of this so we can use something similar for people in need in the future.

karuna's trumpet: scanning

I have been so swamped this semester. I usually have a chance to get into the studio and work at least one day a week when teaching, but this semester has been the exception. With all of the new courses, seven graduate students, and many other commitments, I just haven't had time to think let alone work on something. On Friday, I got into work early, and decided I could 3D scan Karuna's trumpet before my first graduate student committee meeting. Teresa met Jill on Thursday, so we could quickly scan it and get it back to Karuna on Sunday. It was a little difficult to get a decent scan even after "dusting it" but it should be good enough for modeling reference. Kavahn was in the lab on Friday, so he took a few pictures of it so we could use these images for modeling. I was busy the rest of the day, but at least I got a little something done.