At Johns Hopkins University a team of students are solving first world problems of women who use lower leg prostheses. They’re developing a prosthetic foot that can wear a high heel, letting women go out in style without having to have a bunch of fancy custom made legs.
Most existing prostheses are designed for wide, grounded, sneaker-like shoes. The new Prominence foot is narrow and adjustable, without requiring any tools, to take on different angles at the ankle. It can support up to 250 pounds (113 Kg), but is still a work in progress.
It’s made of a carbon fiber footplate that provides the strength and springiness necessary to feel more like a proper foot while walking, and a hydraulic component for flexion at the sole.
The team recruited amputees to test the feet and also used volunteers on stilts to simulate tall people. The results are promising, but we’ll see if this is something that amputees are looking for and if it makes sense to integrate the technology into existing devices.
Via: Johns Hopkins…
