Prosthesis Nerf Blaster is Just Plain Awesome

Nicholas Huchet’s friends were afraid he wasn’t getting a fair shake in their nerf battles due to missing a hand so they created a bionic nerf blaster to help even the score. Besides being the ultimate in friendship goals, it also turned out to be a really cool project that involved 3D printing, electromyography, and a very small computer.

Using electromyography, just like his existing hand, they hacked together a Nerf blaster that would shoot every time Nicholas flexed a muscle in his forearm. Not only that, they made it look incredibly cool!

I discovered this project while browsing around Make: Magazine’s blog. You can watch a video and read more about how this bionic Nerf blaster was made by clicking here.

Speaking of Muscle Sensors

This project reminded me of a really cool MyoWare muscle sensor project that was featured in last summer’s AGM: Summer Break series. It’s not a prosthesis project, but it involves the same idea of muscle sensors.

You ever wonder how muscles work and what the relationship from activity to action really means? Grace shows you how to use this kit to translate activity into voltage and then see the results on the LED shield. No better way to make new friends then strapping them up with a biometric sensor pad and asking them to flex.

You can watch the video and learn about this project here.  If you want to see more student projects like this one, make sure you check out the whole summer break series.