Breaking a bone is unpleasant all around — and having to wear a smelly, clunky plaster cast is like getting kicked when you’re down. At least, that’s how Jake Evill felt after breaking his hand.
Evill, a recent graduate of Victoria University in New Zealand, wants to update the process of healing of broken limbs with something a little more modern: 3D printing.
Evill created the Cortex cast, a breathable, lightweight, recyclable and washable exoskeleton that mimics the body’s trabecular, the small honeycomb-like structure that makes up your inner bone structure.
The cast lets in plenty of air, which prevents that stuffy, itchy feeling.
The Cortex cast employs a similar fitting system as other casts, with X-rays to determine bone fractures. Evill’s prototype used a hacked Kinect for Xbox for the 3D scanning, but a more sophisticated and precise scanning process is in the works.
