Translator: Ilze Garda Reviewer: Denise RQ
Roughly two years ago, a lady named leva came into our office.
Our office is a 3D printing center
with several 3D printers capable of printing almost anything,
starting from an iPhone case
to a complicated educational model for medicine,
and even end-use parts for airplanes.
Ieva asked if we could 3D-print a prosthetic hand for her 6-year-old son.
She could see several examples online; they looked much like this one.
They have 3D-printed fingers, a 3D-printed palm,
and they work by using basic mechanics.
For us, this task looked like a piece of cake.
Ričards needed the prosthesis
because he was missing fingers on his right palm.
The non-scientific explanation to that
is he did not develop any fingers while he was in his mom's womb.
When we started that work, we looked for free designs online,
and sure enough we found several
that could be downloaded and 3D-printed right away.
However, at that time, we had completely no experience:
we didn't know how to take correct measurements,
we didn't know actually how to 3D-print a prosthesis,
and we also forgot to note down
which of his hands he needed the prosthesis for.
But luckily for us, Ričards and leva were very open-minded,
and they were ready to learn together with us.
So we started our journey.
One of the first problems that we encountered
was that it was almost impossible to scale down the prosthesis
to a size that would fit the boy.
When we got the limb right,
the palm was too big, the fingers were too long, and so on.
To get to the first assembled prototype,
it took us several scaling rounds, tens of 3D prints,
and at the first fitting,
the prosthesis was so off I felt ashamed.
I felt ashamed especially because I knew that Ričards had promised
to show the hand off to his friends next morning in the kindergarten.
Take a look at your own hand.
They are one of the most complicated structures in your body.
They are truly individual to each of us, and it's no wonder
the generic design of the Internet didn't really work for Ričards.
We needed several integral changes to the design,
so we were back to square one.
But after almost two weeks of work,
we were done with the design, and it actually fit very well.
For the first time, Ričards was able to hold a toy.
When I saw it, I was blown away.
Do you even remember what was the first thing you held in your hand?
Seeing how this simple device can return
some of the basic functionalities to his hand
made me understand
how helping people like Ričards can instantly improve their lives.
And the key to our success was customized design.
For a moment there, it felt like we have cracked the code;
now we'll be printing prostheses for everyone in need.
However, when we look back at what we did,
we helped one person over the period of two weeks,
and it is far too long to help many people.
To understand how big a problem this is in the world,
we did some more research.
Obviously, Ričards is not the only guy who needs a prosthesis like that,
and missing fingers is just one of many, many problems
that could be solved with the help of 3D printing.
Just to paint the picture, here are some of the numbers.
Globally, every day, 177 people are born
with a similar problem to what Ričards has.
If you take a look at a year, that is already 65,000 new cases,
and that is only for the upper limb deficiencies.
If we add other diagnosis to the mix
- other diagnosis that could be helped with 3D-printed supportive devices -
suddenly, the numbers look much different.
In Latvia alone, roughly 15,000 people could be helped this way.
If you take a look at the USA, that's already two million.
In Europe,
there are four million people with limb deficiencies
that will need supportive devices.
Globally, nobody really knows.
But we think it's way about 50 million,
and a vast majority of them live in countries
that have limited or no solutions available.
Apparently, the problem was much bigger than we could comprehend.
We started thinking what it would take to help everyone in need.
Not even looking at the conventional ways of producing a prosthetic,
let's look back at what we did to help Ričards.
First of all, we took measurements, we did some 3D modeling,
we 3D-printed and assembled the prosthesis,
and for this to be possible,
we needed him over for several fittings, for repeated tests,
and evidently, the repetitive process of manually collecting these measurements
and remodeling the 3D design over and over again
is what took us most of the time during the period of two weeks.
Working with our second client, Reinis,
we tried to streamline the process as much as possible.
We replaced manual measurements with 3D scanning,
we used our previous experience
to incorporate this 3D design in the modeling process,
thus decreasing the time needed.
It took us only two hours to complete the digital manipulation.
Another six hours were spent to 3D-print and assemble the prosthesis.
Also, we didn't need Reinis to come over as many times
because we had a 3D model of his hand.
All the process was done in one day, which is a huge improvement
over the two weeks that it took us to help Ričards.
But still, it doesn't come even close to helping everyone in need.
How do we connect all those people who need supportive devices
with the 3D printers out there?
How do we bridge this?
How do we make a customized 3D design of everybody's problem?
If we asked a professional 3D designer to help us
- knowing it takes around two hours to help one person -
that designer could help almost four persons a day.
In a month time, that could go up to 80 persons.
If you wanted to help close to a thousand,
that would take almost a year.
So do we go on a hiring spree
to get as many professional 3D designers as we can
to fill this valley of no designs?
A non-profit organization called "Enable" actually is really close to that.
With a community of 7,000 members,
they were capable of producing and delivering
1,032 hands in the year 2015.
They were actually planning to double this amount to 3,300.
If they continue doubling every year,
even then it won't be enough to actually cater to the global need.
So we know that even 50 million designs couldn't be done by professional designers
because it is just way too long to process one case.
So how to approach this?
How do we effectively help everyone in need
while keeping the cost low and the process available?
The solution was very simple for us.
We had to critically decrease the time needed to process one case.
Therefore, we needed
something more efficient than human labor to do this.
What is more efficient at digital tasks than a human?
Many would argue that's a smartphone.
An interesting idea [was] presented by Peter Diamandis,
a co-founder and executive chairman at Singularity University.
He predicts that from 2.6 billion Internet-connected smartphones right now
it will grow to almost by year 2020.
Likewise, [the number of] 3D printers will grow at least fourfold by the time,
reaching four million printers globally.
Why is this important?
This means the availability of 3D printers and the availability of smartphones
is not going to be a problem in the future.
So why smartphones?
Because smartphones are capable of processing 3D data,
and, what is more important, they can also make 3D scans.
To illustrate how easy it is to make a 3D scan,
I've asked my colleague Fricis to join me on the stage.
In about 60 seconds, Fricis will make a 3D scan of my hand,
and this scan will have sufficient detail
to actually create me a prosthesis.
He is using an iPad with a small add-on.
This small 3D scanner works by projecting an infrared laser pattern on to my hand.
It cannot be seen with a naked eye,
but iPad's camera can pick it up and make it into a 3D model.
Thank you, Fricis.
Let's take a look.
In just about 60 seconds, we have a 3D scan of my hand.
In the near future,
this will be possible on any smartphone without the need for external gadgets.
This means that, if in the future, one of out of 100 people
will make a 3D scan of an impaired person,
we will have all the 3D scans we need to help everyone.
But what can be done with 50 million scans?
It's an impossible task for a human to process this.
Remember that I mentioned
we needed something more efficient than human labor to battle this?
With this idea in mind for the last one and a half years,
my team and I have been working on artificial intelligence software.
Having seen how 3D scanning can help
in the process of 3D modeling a digital prosthesis,
we are looking for ways how to make these two things work together.
What is more,
we figured that with help of artificial intelligence algorithms
we could effectively replace
much of the human input needed to do the repetitive tasks.
To achieve this, we worked together with 3D design professionals,
with prosthetic doctors
to implement their know-how already into the code.
The artificial intelligence algorithm then learns from each new case,
thus making the prosthesis better
and decreasing the time needed per modification.
In the current stage of development,
the software can take a 3D scan as the main input,
even a scan from a mobile phone,
and adjust it around the prosthesis design,
basically adjusting it to the 3D scan anatomy,
eventually creating a customized prosthesis
tailored to everyone individually.
Finally, we send the 3D design
to a 3D printer right away from the software.
The important bit, however,
is that this happens with little or no human input.
We will be able to teach any of you to use this software
to process a single prosthetic in 15 minutes or less,
thus excluding the need for professional 3D designers.
And the best part about this: it already works today.
Let us look back at problem.
We'd like professional designers' time to prepare prosthetic for everyone.
To be more exact,
we need to be able to send over 50 million designs
to any 3D printer in the world.
While this could be a job that 3D printers can certainly handle,
no army of 3D designers could do this.
Therefore, we actually leave the job to anyone of you,
anybody who has a smartphone together with a smart software.
Just a few weeks ago,
we used the same principle on a member of the Latvian paralympic team, Poļina.
Poļina is a paralympic fencer, currently one of the best in the world.
But even for her,
it is really hard to find the exact back support that she needs.
We modeled and 3D-printed her an individually fitted lower back brace,
and in the modeling process,
there were no medical professionals or professional 3D designers present.
These are the sort of moments when I look back
at how I came to work with 3D printing and artificial intelligence software.
Just a bit over three years ago,
I was in an experience exchange program,
sitting in an office in downtown New York.
I was distracted
from the ever rewarding process of brokering non-banking debt
by watching a YouTube video explaining 3D printing.
I was completely mesmerized for weeks.
I was using my morning and evening commutes
to dwell over endless ideas of how else we could be using 3D printers.
Never did I imagine though
that I would be helping people like Ričards, Reinis, and Poļina.
It is mind-boggling to think
that a financial analyst like me could be doing it.
What is more, not only my profession
but also my location doesn't matter anymore.
It actually doesn't matter whether that's me doing it,
because anybody of you could be preparing 3D models
and sending them over to any 3D printer in the world.
Much like Poļina - when she leaves for the Paralympic Games -
will be able to take a 3D model of her brace with her,
and in case she breaks the back support,
she'll just have to find the closest 3D printing shop
and make a new one.
Smartphones with 3D scanning functionality,
intelligent software, and 3D printers will be the three cornerstones
of individualized device and variable production in the future.
Where I'm going with this
is that the next time when Ričards grows out of his prosthesis in one year,
his mom will not be coming to our office anymore.
She will take her smartphone, open an app, do a quick 3D scan,
prepare some modifications,
and send the design to the closest 3D printer available to her.
I don't think George Lucas had this in mind either,
but I truly hope, that in the future, any person in need will be able to receive
an artificially fitted and customized prosthesis
just like Luke Skywalker did when he lost his hand in the sword fight.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)