RevolutionizingProstheticsProgram
Latest
Prosthetic hand restores a man's sense of touch
DARPA promised prosthetic limbs that produce realistic sensations, and it's making good on its word. The agency's researchers have successfully tested an artificial hand that gave a man a "near-natural" level of touch. The patient could tell when scientists were pressing against specific fingers, even when they tried to 'trick' the man by touching two digits at once. The key was to augment the thought-controlled hand with a set of pressure-sensitive torque motors wired directly to the brain -- any time the hand touched something, it sent electrical signals that felt much like flesh-and-bone contact.
DARPA's prosthetic challenge nets first prototype
Less than a year after challenging researchers to develop a bionic arm that looks, feels, and works like a real arm by 2009, DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program has now netted its first prototype, PhysOrg reports, with one patient already putting the arm through its paces. Developed by a team at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, the appropriately-dubbed Proto 1 system not only consists of a prosthetic arm, but a virtual environment that patients can use to get accustomed to it. Like other similar systems, the Proto 1 makes use of residual nerves in the patient to control the arm, which also allows for them to receive a sensation of grip strength and touch. That apparently makes the arm precise enough to remove a credit card from a pocket, with the arm also boasting a "free swing mode" that allows for a more natural movement when the patient is walking. While Proto 1 seems to have already been enough to attract interest from various government agencies, the researchers don't look to be resting on their laurels, with them already hard at work on Proto 2.
