The 3D printing company Open Bionics has received permission from Walt Disney to display popular Disney copyrighted characters on their products. Open Bionics will use this permission to feature designs from Disney on their low-cost prosthetic hands for children who are amputees.
Characters from “Star Wars”, “Frozen” and “Iron Man” will be featured on the prosthetics. Open Bionics will not have to pay Disney to use these designs. Designs include snowflakes from the movie “Frozen” and the glove of the popular superhero “Iron Man”.
Open Bionics was one of ten companies selected to participate in the Disney Accelerator program. The program consists of a three month investment and mentoring program. The companies that participate in the program are granted up to $12,000 to develop their ideas and innovations. Additionally, top executives from Disney assist the companies in the process.
Every year, hundreds of companies apply to participate in the Disney Accelerator program, but only a small number are selected. The representatives from the companies that are selected share an office at a Disney facility, and they participate in movie nights and pizza parties.
According to Open Bionics, there are 11 million people worldwide who have experienced the tragedy of losing a limb. While some are fortunate enough to have expensive robotic prosthetics, others only have hooks, and some have nothing.
By making use of 3D printing technology, Open Bionics believes that it can create a robotic hand for $3,000. The current price for a robotic prosthetic is about $100,000. If Open Bionics can do what it says it can, then it would enrich the lives of amputees everywhere.
One other company was also granted the right to make use of Disney characters. MakieLab from Los Angeles will make use of 3D printing technology to create customized dolls.
Disney has $49 billion in annual revenue.
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