Disabled man invents eating aid for people with no arms

Gang Li used to be a worker at Electricity Maintenance factory. In 1996, his arms were electrocuted in a work accident and, after amputation, he lost his whole right arm and his left forearm. He spent the first two years in the hospital and rehabilitation centre, where he was taken care of by others.

After returning home, Li was determined to take care of himself independently. He learned how to perform daily activities with no arms, and successively installed prosthesis which cost about 25,000 Euros. However, Li was not satisfied with its function: “the prosthesis makes me look like a normal person, but the performance is far different from normal limbs. Especially for eating, for example, the prosthesis can only help me to pick up an apple, but it is not able to help me complete the action of sending it to my mouth.”

“I always wanted to live as a normal person, so I started developing solutions for eating”, said Li. Once he had studied Chinese medicine, Li started with another study - he repeatedly decomposed the eating process and started designing. After he finished the drawings, he worked with a collaborator and completed the prototype of dining aids.

The invention worked quite well on himself, and also won the award in a national invention competition. Besides, Li participated in an international exhibition, where the invention aroused the interest of an American-Indian college student. He interviewed Li and recorded the demonstration, and then forwarded the information to a US based assistive device design company to see if there was a possibility of cooperation. “I am now waiting for an echo”, said Li.

Li was already contacted by people from the internet to buy the device he designed. "However, I am not ready to sell, since it’s still a conceptual product and it needs to be further improved – either making the semi-arm fully automatic or adding foot-controlled function for people with no arms”, said Li. “I am looking for collaborations to produce practical and easy-to-use eating tools.”

Adapted from:
http://www.zqcy.org/html/news/2014-5-28/262.html