Cyberhand Controlled via Electrodes Directly Implanted into Arm Nerves

European researchers have successfully implanted tiny electrodes directly into motor and sensory nerves of an amputee's arm stump

1 min read
Cyberhand Controlled via Electrodes Directly Implanted into Arm Nerves

European researchers have successfully implanted tiny electrodes directly into motor and sensory nerves of an amputee's arm stump, allowing him to move and feel sensations from a robotic hand. While overall this project looks less advanced than other projects such as the Luke Arm developed by Dean Kamen's DEKA, the direct implantation of electrodes seems more straight forward than other current approaches, such as surgically rerouting an amputees’ residual arm nerves to the pectoral muscles and then generate control signals via electrodes detecting pectoral muscle contractions. The researchers also hope that this novel method will allow for faster and, ultimately, more complex control and sensing of artificial limbs for partial amputees.

In this first trial a single amputee chosen from 30 volunteers underwent tests with the implanted electrodes for 1 month before having them removed - more long-term implants are still a major challenge. However, according to researchers the patient mastered the robotic hand within a few days and by the time of the trial the hand obeyed the commands it received from the man's brain in 95 percent of cases. Researchers are now working on significantly increasing the amount of time the hair-thin electrodes can stay in the body.

For more information have a look at the Cyberhand website (unfortunately has been offline for the past few days), a video in English or some more comprehensive videos in Italian and German.

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