Hand prosthesis with a sense of touch

Technology[1] Technology[1]Inventions [2]Robots [3]The Body [4]Denmark [5]Videnskab.dk [6] A new hand prosthesis enables an amputee to feel a handshake for the first time in years. A quantum leap in prosthesis research, says scientist. Scientists have created a hand prosthesis that not only receives and responds to brain signals, but also sends information back to the brain. This means, for instance, that that the artificial hand can feel pressure and can tell the amputee, via the nerve endings, that he is holding something in his hands. The prosthesis also enables the amputee to feel that a coffee mug becomes heavier when coffee is being poured into it, and the amputee can even feel differences in texture and shape. According to the Danish contributor to the new invention, Associate Professor Winnie Jensen of the Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction at Aalborg University, the new prosthesis represents a major breakthrough: ”It is pretty unique that we have now turned communication between prosthesis and person into bidirectional communication. It will lead to a quantum leap in the quality of the type of prostheses we can offer amputees.” Jensen was the project coordinator of the part of the project that developed the implantable electrodes. The prosthesis, which was tested on Danish amputee Dennis Aabo Sørensen, is presented in the journal Science Translational Medicine [7].