For us lucky enough to still have all our limbs and appendages intact the small things (like texting) seem pretty easy, but imagine if you lost something as simple as your thumb. You couldn’t write, hold a key, button your shirt up or even zip up your pants. You would have to re-
Before we talk about the article, lets talk about the advancements in prosthetics up until now.
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Artificial Limbs have allowed amputees to go about their normal lives, whilst missing a part of their body.
At the very least, these prosthetics will ensure that the individual an go about their daily activities (walking ,eating and dressing) independently.
There are many reasons why individuals can loses part or all of an arm or leg. Most Commonly:
- Circulation issues. If sever enough diabetes can cause plaque to build up in the circulatory system.
- Traumatic injury. Car accidents and military combat.
- Cancer
- Birth Defects.
With the advancements in technology, prosthetics have become more functional and comfortable.
In fact Alan Fonteles Cardoso, lost both his legs below his knees and using prosthetics, ran 100 meters in 10.57 seconds. (Click here for an image)
The video to the left, show hugh herr, an individual who lost both legs, returning to rock climbing with prosthetic legs.
But what if your not a sprinter or rock climber. What if you just want to do everyday tasks like, crack an egg, hold a pen or open a door.
Myoelectric prostheses.
These are more advanced prosthetics and can cost quite a bit, but how do the work?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140222-
Although individuals with prosthetics can pick up a pens, dress themselves and complete a lot of tasks normally impossible to them, there is one thing prosthetics have never been able to do, sensation.
Prosthetics (amazing as they are) can’t detect heat, cold, soft, hard, round or square.
So how do we over come this?
Scientists have wired pressure sensors in the fingers of an artificial hand and connected then to sensory neurons in the upper arm. This procedure was done on amputee Dennis Aabo Sorensen.
Sorensen new prosthetic was tested on a number of different objects. ‘I could feel round things and soft things and hard things’ he said.
This offers a huge psychological boost and improves their control over their prosthetics.
Silvestro Micera and colleagues at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Italy and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland inserted sensors to the mechanical tendons of the prosthetic fingers.
The sensors created an electrical impulse based on the amount of pressure placed on the tendons.
The signal was then passed through a computer, and sent to sensory neurons that where formerly on his hand.
Over the course of a month, everything Sorensen touched caused a tingling sensation. He has since learn to understand the different sensations associated with different qualities, such as hardness, softness and roundness.
Sensation is an extremely important of life. Without it you wouldn’t know if your crushing your food or holding it.
Dustin Tyler worked with Sorensen on this project. He said "our patients can twist stems off of cherries. That was really something to see. If we turned off the touch, they would grasp too hard and crush the fruit. Or they would grip too softly and the stems would slip through their fingers."
The next step in this amazing journey is allowing amputees to identify different textures.
For the full article click here
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140222-
https://www.ted.com/talks/hugh_herr_the_new_bionics_that_let_us_run_climb_and_dance?language=en
