Nerve-directed, touch sensitive bionic arm
Published by Rob Flickenger February 11th, 2007 in Cybernetics, Inventions
A 26 year old woman who lost her left arm after a motorcycle accident has been fitted with a touch sensitive bionic arm.
The new technique — called targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) — involves re-routing nerves that once controlled the patient’s arm to a patch on the chest, where they grow into muscles. Electrodes on the surface of the chest skin pick up brain signals from the nerves and send signals to operate the artificial arm.
When Ms Mitchell thinks about moving her hand or arm, the nerves react as if they were still leading all the way down her arm and into the elbow and fingers.
If someone touches the patch of skin on her chest it feel as if they are touching her hand. Scientists are working on sensors for the artificial hand that would communicate with the re-routed nerves to provide a patient with the same sensations they would have felt before amputation.
While the Ms. Mitchell’s situation is a tragedy, this is a fantastic development for technology. We finally seem to be moving away from the era of “Hand, pick up the ball!“
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Wow these arms really are amazing. For the problem with senses in the patch, maybe scientists should try to move the patch which is currently on the chest to inside the real hand, so the nerves can still grow into mucles. They could then try to create a sort of message transmitter into the bionic hand when the patch is touched.
By the way, how much would you be looking at (pricewise) if you wanted to buy one of these bionic arms??