Over the next month, we’re celebrating technology and innovation in a new series called Bright Sparks. As part of the series, we’re bringing back some of our favourite articles about the people and ideas that are changing the world with technology. Easton LaChappelle’s brainwave came when he was bored in class. The teenager realised he wanted to do something extraordinary with his life. The question was, what? The answer came from an unexpected direction. LaChappelle tinkered at home, building a robotic arm out of fishing wire, Lego and a 3D printer. Later, he met a young girl who was transfixed with his home-made prostheses – it turned out she had been fitted with a prosthetic limb, one so expensive “it was almost a burden for the family’.
Easton LaChappelle, a the next month inventor from the US, used a computer game called Mindflex to help him develop software that can move a 3D-printed arm using human brain waves. Using Mindflex, which enables a user to control a ball using their mind, LaChappelle was able to apply the same technology to move parts of the arm using his mind. LaChappelle said "we were able to produce the full robotic platform for about $500, and we want everybody who’s missing a limb to be able to use what we’ve created."