Brazilian scientists have created a facial prosthesis, simulating it with a smartphone

12/15/2016

Researchers from the University of Brazil Paulista returned the full life of Carlito Conceisio, creating a comfortable and realistic silicone prosthesis for the face. The peculiarity of this procedure was that the artificial part of the face, printed on a 3D printer, was created using a conventional smartphone and photo processing application, reports the Daily Mail .

About eight years ago, Carlito Conceisio underwent facial surgery due to advanced cancer. After surgery, the man lost his left eye, part of the cheek and nose. The prosthesis he received was unreliable and often fell out. Carlito hid him behind his sunglasses and tried to appear as little as possible in society. All this led to the fact that the man became a hermit and fell into a deep depression.

In Brazilian medical centers rarely meet high-tech equipment that can make high-quality prostheses. In addition, the cost of 3D modeling of physical working models is very high - hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling. Thanks to research by specialists from Sao Paula, a new simplified 3D modeling procedure has been developed, which allows you to use the results to create prostheses.

Three-dimensional models made by alternative technology are inexpensive and accessible to everyone. The head of development, Dr. Rodrigo Salazar, worked on this research for two years. And on the very creation of the model of the face was spent only one day. For this, fifteen photographs of people from different angles were taken. The photo was converted into a 3D image on an Autodesk 123 smartphone via an application downloaded for free from the Internet.

Then the prosthesis was printed on a 3D printer. Installing a new silicone prosthesis lasted about two hours. Fastening of an artificial part of the face is carried out with the help of magnets. Thus, the prosthesis can be removed and washed. How long the product will last is not known. However, experts say that installing a new prosthesis will be easy and not expensive.

Valeria Sokolova, news editor