Break through in bionics, an artificial hand that can feel

November 7, 9:23 AM By Steve Carter

According to CNN, researchers are working on a breakthrough in artificial limb technology — a prosthetic hand that can actually feel.

In a breakthrough reminiscent of the bionics technology of television, the SmartHand project is funded by the European Union and is a collaboration between researchers from across the continent. It has produced a prototype motorized prosthetic hand that researchers say gives unprecedented sensory feedback.

Fredrik Sebelius, of Lund University, in Sweden, is one of those working on the project. He told CNN that the SmartHand is able to exploit the fact that many amputees experience what he terms a “phantom hand. If you push the skin on an amputee’s forearm, they feel like you are pushing on their phantom fingers,” .

When an amputee imagines moving a “phantom hand,” signals are sent down nerve fibres in the remaining part of the amputated arm to activate muscles that would have moved the fingers.

Myolelectric signals from those muscles are recorded by electrodes applied to the forearm and then transmitted to motors in the artificial hand.

It’s a technique that has been used in prosthetic limbs for decades, but Sebelius says the SmartHand gives much more control than other systems.

It also allows sensory information to be detected and transmitted from several sensors in each prosthetic finger, meaning users can actually “feel” objects they hold in the SmartHand.

This technology may allow benefit to amputees to feel surfaces and to be able to do far more than previous prosthetics have allowed.

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