Full Sail Course Director Pat Starace 拿起那个一直放在他身边的不起眼的盒子.

We’re sitting in the lobby of 3B, 聊了聊他在广告和电影行业20多年的工作经历, where he created models, digital animations, and effects for dozens of companies including MasterCard, Nabisco, and US Airways. As a young model maker in 1979, 帕特曾为哥伦比亚广播公司的旗舰新闻杂志修改片头 60 Minutes. 在这个序列中使用的秒表现在驻留在史密森学会的流行文化收藏中.

“This is something I’m really proud of,” says Pat, reaching in to the box to remove something from its depths.

考虑到他的简历，人们希望他能展示一些珍贵的或标志性的东西. 相反，他画出了一块普通的长方形石膏，上面用铅笔画出了纵横交错的网格线. “This is a cast of what Tyler started out with,” he says.

He reaches into the box again, 然后拿出了一个非常精细的假手，模仿钢铁侠的手套. “And this is what Tyler has now.”

Pat has a long history of using his talents to give back, and most of his efforts center around helping kids in need. So when a friend gifted him a 3D printer, 他知道他想用它来做一些会对孩子的生活产生巨大影响的事情. After some initial research, 他决定创造一种挑战传统假肢设计规则的假肢.

“只要它有功能，它甚至不需要看起来像人手，”他说. “在泰勒的例子中，我并没有试图让这只假手像另一只手一样抓取东西. Instead, I wanted to load it up with features like Bluetooth. We’re in the digital age. 我的目标是创造一只能做其他手不能做的事情的手.”

建模后的手在玛雅和软件，帕特设置工作打印. 事实证明，这个过程比他最初预期的要困难得多. 大量的零件将他的打印机推向了极限——他打印了20个小时，结果在19个小时内就失败了. 有一次，打印机的控制器太热了，以至于着火了.

“It was perseverance. I knew I just had to keep working through the problems. 尽管面临诸多挑战，但看着这只手成形是一种不可思议的经历。.

幸运的是，帕特能够更换烧毁的控制器并完成这项工作. 在所有的部件都打印出来之后，就到了处理手部电子元件的时候了. True to his vision, Pat packed the hand with features.

Bending the hand forward at the wrist reveals a pair of low diode infrared lasers. Magnets 在中指和无名指上，佩戴者可以很容易地拿起金属物体 capacitive touch stylus 在食指方便与触摸屏设备的交互. Pat even threw in a universal remote 这使得佩戴者可以打开和关闭任何电视，并在频道之间滚动.

一款特别设计的移动应用程序使用低功耗蓝牙将手与任何移动电话连接起来e, 让佩戴者以一种更像游戏的方式锻炼他们的手和手腕，而不是乏味的物理治疗. 该应用程序还配备了警报功能，当被激活时，手会震动, 对于想要引起孩子注意的父母来说，这是一个特别有用的功能. 帕特还想与这只手的接受者分享他对编程的热爱，所以他附上了一个 Arduino board that the wearer can learn to program right on their wrist.

随着手继续聚在一起，帕特正在做的事情也传开了. His story was picked up by several national media markets, including Gizmodo, Mashable, and The Washington Post. 申请书开始从全国各地涌来，来自需要帮助的孩子的父母.

“The response was overwhelming,” says Pat, 谁只有资源去创造一只手和一个参考原型. “I’m just one guy, and I’m filtering through all of these responses. Finally, I found Tyler, who lives in a small town in Texas. When I say small, I mean 2,200 people. They don’t even have a traffic light.”

On January 3rd, Tyler’s 8th birthday, 帕特和一个朋友亲自从佛罗里达开车到德克萨斯去送那只手. 帕特说，他花了13个小时的时间来焊接最终的电子元件. “我脑子里有这样一幅画面，一个小孩举起手，手掌上的推进器亮了起来. Those lights had to work. If they didn’t, the whole thing would feel like a failure.”

Back in the 3B lobby, 帕特拿着那只手的原型，就好像它是博物馆里最珍贵的东西. He bends the hand backwards at the wrist, illuminating a ring of dazzling white LED lights in the palm. He smiles.

“那是我一生中最美妙的一天——当泰勒举起他的手，手就亮了起来.”

帕特说，他希望这只手能帮助人们忘记泰勒的残疾，把注意力集中在他是一个多么了不起的孩子上.

“我把我所有的技能，我所做的一切，都用在了这个项目上. And what I think happened, what I hope happened, is that we were able to turn the tables, where a disability has now become and ability.”

For a closer look at the Iron Man hand, check out Pat’s website.