Prosthetics

Researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK have combined human stem cells with flexible electronics to create a new type of neural implant that has the potential to help amputees or those who’ve lost the use of their limbs.

Although advances are occurring in the field of powered prosthetics, the devices still require heavy batteries. Scientists at Rice University are trying to change that, by creating a pneumatic "extra limb" that's powered by the wearer's footsteps.

Skin plays a key role in our sense of touch, but its sensitivity is hard to replicate. Now, researchers have developed a new type of electronic skin (e-skin) containing tiny embedded hairs that can precisely perceive touch and the direction it moves.

Ordinarily when someone requires a prosthetic eye, a mold has to be made of their eye socket, after which the prosthesis is built by hand. A new 3D printing system, however, is claimed to be much quicker, and to produce a more realistic-looking eye.

Could an existing piano player adapt to playing the instrument with an extra, robotic thumb? A new study suggests that the answer is yes, and interestingly enough, even people who are new to the piano are equally adept at using the added appendage.

Currently, most powered prosthetic limbs are controlled by electrodes in the user's residual stump. An experimental new MIT system, however, is claimed to work better by replacing those electrodes with implanted magnetic beads.

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.

Scientists in China have developed an artificial skin for prosthetic devices and robotics that changes color in response to force, mimicking the bruising process to offer a visual sign that damage has taken place.

Although there have already been birds that received strap-on artificial legs, scientists are now reporting the first successful integration of a prosthetic foot directly into a stork's residual leg bone. They're describing the animal as the world's first "bionic bird."

A few years ago a designer named Dani Clode introduced the world to the Third Thumb, a robotic finger controlled using pressure sensors under one’s feet. Now neuroscientists are using the device to investigate how our brain's adapt to extra limbs.

There are now a number of materials designed to give robots or prostheses a sense of touch. And while most of them are thin and skin-like, a new alternative takes the form of a spongey foam – and it combines several desirable qualities.

For some time now, we've been hearing about prosthetic limbs that are designed to work with amputees' bodies. MIT researchers are taking a different approach, though, with a new type of amputation that facilitates the use of prostheses.