Prosthesis

While a number of groups are developing thought-controlled prosthetic hands, most of the devices require fiddly electrodes to be implanted in the amputee's body. Such is not the case with a new system, however, which works with implanted magnets.

There are already a number of experimental prosthetic hands that provide users with the tactile sensation of touching an object. The MiniTouch system takes things further, as it allows users to sense the temperature of items that they're touching.

Prostheses that replace fingers are typically complex, expensive devices, the cost of which often isn't covered by medical insurance. The student-designed Lunet, on the other hand (no pun intended) is simple and can be made from open-source plans.

Engineers from MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have developed a prosthetic hand that precisely inflates individual fingers to take hold of objects, while also providing the user with tactile feedback.

Although robotic prosthetic legs do have some advantages over their conventional counterparts, they also have some drawbacks that keep them from entering wider use. A new prototype prosthesis, however, addresses some of those shortcomings.

An international team of scientists is reporting success with one of the most advanced bionic arms ever made. Users control the prosthesis just by thinking about it, while it feeds the sensation of touch back to the brain.

Scientists have added tactile sensors to a prosthetic leg, allowing users to walk with much less effort.

​When most of us walk over uneven ground, our feet respond to the dips and humps by flexing the ankle and moving the toes. Prosthetic feet typically don't do so, often resulting in falls. An experimental new model, however, uses a tripod-like assembly to react more like a real foot.

A collaboration working under the EU-funded DeTOP project has developed a new hand prosthesis that reads signals direct from an amputee's nerves and muscles via electrodes implanted in the patient's arm.

Researchers have developed a prosthetic joint that connects directly to the forearm bones of an amputee, allowing them to use a prosthesis with a wrist-like rotary movement. Use of the new joint could dramatically improve the quality of life for amputees.

​We've heard about prosthetic arms/hands that provide people with a sense of touch, although there can be problems with the devices, sometimes resulting in users getting a painful shock or feeling nothing at all. That may not be the case for much longer, though, thanks to a new electronic module.

Researchers at Caltech have induced a range of sensations in the arm of a paralyzed man. Electrodes implanted in the brain stimulated the neurons to produce different feelings. The research could eventually lead to prosthetic limbs that allow users to feel realistic sensations through them.