1 00:00:00,305 --> 00:00:06,143 Walt Disney once said that animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. 2 00:00:06,143 --> 00:00:10,450 He was talking about cartoons but advances in technology have taken 3 00:00:10,450 --> 00:00:13,740 that basic concept to a whole new dimension. 4 00:00:13,740 --> 00:00:20,406 Michelle Miller shows us how the idea of a modern day inventor became a 3D reality. 5 00:00:20,406 --> 00:00:25,129 Grabbing a backpack is hardly the feat of a superhero 6 00:00:25,129 --> 00:00:27,866 unless you're 12-year-old Leon McCarthy 7 00:00:27,866 --> 00:00:32,322 and you're hand looks like it's straight out of a science fiction movie! 8 00:00:32,322 --> 00:00:34,072 Michelle: You've actually become sort of a ... 9 00:00:34,072 --> 00:00:36,708 Leon: Cyborg! 10 00:00:36,708 --> 00:00:38,611 Michelle: There's a cool factor 11 00:00:38,611 --> 00:00:41,823 Leon: Yeah, it's special instead of different. 12 00:00:41,823 --> 00:00:44,615 Leon has been special since birth. 13 00:00:44,615 --> 00:00:50,187 When he was still in the womb, restricted blood flow prevented his hand from developing. 14 00:00:50,187 --> 00:00:52,822 I saw his hand sticking up and there were no fingers on it. 15 00:00:52,822 --> 00:00:54,891 And it was hard for my wife, it was hard for me. 16 00:00:54,891 --> 00:01:00,906 Two years ago, his father, Paul, began the search for an inexpensive, functional prosthetic 17 00:01:00,906 --> 00:01:07,990 What he found was this internet video posted by Ivan Owen, an inventor in Washington State. 18 00:01:07,990 --> 00:01:12,572 I've always had this vision of people being able to build their own prosthetic device at home. 19 00:01:12,572 --> 00:01:17,114 Owen, and a collaborator in South Africa, designed a hand that could be 20 00:01:17,114 --> 00:01:20,489 made by a 3-dimensional printer. 21 00:01:20,489 --> 00:01:25,072 It's essentially like a hot glue gun. It's plastic that feeds into it, 22 00:01:25,072 --> 00:01:28,823 the printer head gets really hot, it liquifies that plastic and then, layer by layer 23 00:01:28,823 --> 00:01:30,407 it creates an object. 24 00:01:30,407 --> 00:01:35,132 The design relies on wrist movement. Downward motion creates cable tension that 25 00:01:35,132 --> 00:01:38,655 closes the fingers while a move upward opens them. 26 00:01:38,655 --> 00:01:42,940 The assembly instructions were posted for free on the internet so someone like 27 00:01:42,940 --> 00:01:47,240 Paul McCarthy in Marblehead, Massachusetts could print it. 28 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:49,381 He took the idea to his son. 29 00:01:49,381 --> 00:01:51,407 Leon: I thought he was a little crazy. 30 00:01:51,407 --> 00:01:55,739 He was like "We can print all these fingers and then like, clip them all in" 31 00:01:55,739 --> 00:01:58,240 and it was a little too much. 32 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:01,156 Michelle: The first time you saw it, and when you tried it out 33 00:02:01,156 --> 00:02:03,195 Leon: It was pretty awesome, yeah. 34 00:02:03,195 --> 00:02:04,822 Michelle: What made it awesome? 35 00:02:04,822 --> 00:02:10,266 Leon: I could pick up, say like, a water bottle, like say, I could pick up my pencil. 36 00:02:10,266 --> 00:02:12,303 Michelle: What is it like to see him with this? 37 00:02:12,303 --> 00:02:17,240 Making your kids happy is like the most rewarding thing you can have as a Dad, right? 38 00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:20,156 The price tag was also appealing. 39 00:02:20,156 --> 00:02:26,322 Mini 3D printers sell for about $2000, materials are far less expensive. 40 00:02:26,322 --> 00:02:29,907 This thing cost us like 5-bucks, 10-bucks, you know, whatever, it was nothing. 41 00:02:29,907 --> 00:02:31,989 What would a prosthesis cost you? 42 00:02:31,989 --> 00:02:34,693 $20,000 ... $30,000. 43 00:02:34,693 --> 00:02:40,321 The cost allows father and son to experiment with newer designs. 44 00:02:40,321 --> 00:02:43,034 Leon: When I outgrow a hand we can easily make a new one. 45 00:02:43,034 --> 00:02:49,441 It's a do-it-yourself solution that was unthinkable before technology made ideas printable! 46 00:02:49,441 --> 00:02:51,109 That's cool ... ... Yeah. 47 00:02:51,109 --> 00:02:54,875 Michelle Miller, CBS News, Marblehead, Massachusetts.