Richard Stark, a student at the Umeå Institute of Design, Sweden, has developed a swimming prosthesis that allows the wearer to “emulate the vaguely circular motion of treading water,” according to an article in the November 2010 issue of Wired magazine.
Image courtesy of Richard Stark
Though Stark, who dubbed his creation “Neptune,” wanted to create an aesthetically pleasing device, he also wanted to create something highly functional, so he collaborated with two “competitive amputee swimmers and their coaches to solve the problems amputees encounter in the pool,” the article said. The result is a “fin” that is divided into three “fingers”-two pliable fingers on the outside and one rigid finger in the middle. A slider enables the user to adjust the flexibility of the fin to match his or her strength. The prosthesis also is able to rotate 90 degrees to switch from the sideways whip kick of the breaststroke to the up-and-down kick of the crawl.
According to the Wired article, Stark is currently simplifying the design to bring the cost down so that he can sell it commercially.
