The new prosthetic arm returns a sense of touch.

On Habré many times published news and articles about prostheses and bioprostheses of different parts of the human body. When it comes to a prosthetic arm, arbitrarily high-tech, usually no one talks about one problem: the lack of a sense of touch, as a result, it is very difficult for a person with such a prosthesis to control the force with which one or another operation is performed. But the new development allows you to return to the person a sense of touch, thanks to special sensors that are directly connected to the corresponding nerve endings in the human hand.

This development was created by a joint team of specialists from the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University. According to experts, human sensations when using this prosthesis practically do not differ from sensations when using their own limbs. Of course, this statement concerns only some moments, because no modern prosthesis will replace its own hand. But this prosthesis is much more perfect than everything that has been created up to the present moment.
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The creators of the prosthesis claim that the sensors of the prosthesis are directly connected (in a special way) to the corresponding nerve endings of the rest of the limb. The electrodes are connected to the three nerve endings of the hand - radial, median and ulnar.

The pulses transmitted by the prosthesis, in this case do not differ from the pulses transmitted by his own hand.

A new development promises to give a permanent effect. The prosthesis has already been tested by a volunteer who has lost his own hand. According to the volunteer, when connecting the implant, he gets the opportunity to feel the "fingers", as well as the palm and the rear part of the palm. At the same time, sensations each time appear in the same places of the “palm”. True, the nature of the sensation is different when the electric signal changes. The volunteer says that at different levels of setting he feels like cotton balls, hair, or emery.



This prosthesis can serve as the basis for creating bionic prostheses that will truly allow a person to feel what he touches. But the final stage is still far away, although, as we see, there are already all the applications for success.

Via dvice + technologyreview