Advancements In Prosthetics

            Amputees all around the world long for their opportunity to get a prosthetic limb. However a big issue that occurs with prosthetic limbs is that they cost so much money. A prosthetic arm and hand with myoelectric cost a minimum of $20,000 in order to simulate muscle movements and be a functioning arm and hand. The technology in the prosthetic and the ability to give someone an arm and a hand back is certainly worth the price to people who need and can afford it. However, what if there was a way to lower the price of the prosthetic but still keep the functionality of it? Aadeel Akhtar found such a solution with 3D printers. Akhtar thought of the idea of using 3D printers to print prosthetic hands that can function through the power of the mind. Thanks to the low cost of 3D printers, prosthetic limbs can be made for under $200, making them much more affordable than the options currently available.

            Helen Shen wrote about two people who are doing work with prosthetics and are working to create a way to allow people to feel and receive sensory feedback when touching objects. Shen writes about Dustin Tyler who helped install pressure sensors to help relay sensory feedback to the brain and writes how in an experiment where participants had to de-stem cherries, 77% were able to without sensory feedback and 100% were able to successfully de-stem cherries with sensory feedback. This shows how prosthetic limbs can be improved with the addition of a pressure sensor, which can then be used to create better 3D printed prosthetic limbs. Shen also writes about Max Ortiz Catalan who works on putting electrodes on the skin in order to help the muscles in the arm do motor commands in a prosthetic hand. The electrodes would send a small jolt to nerves causing it to contract and mimic an actual motor movement that people can do with their arm. Akhtar has been doing work with similar ideas incorporated into his 3D printed prosthetic hand, and is working on a sort of electrode that will pull on the nerve a certain degree depending on how far a finger is bending in the prosthetic hand. With groups of people working on how to make prosthetic hands function as well as a regular hand would and by working to make them cost less, more people who need prosthetic limbs will be more likely to get them and use them successfully.

Shen, Helen. "Artificial Arms Get Closer to the Real Thing." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 08 Oct. 2014. Web. 31 Apr. 2015. <http://www.nature.com/news/artificial-arms-get-closer-to-the-real-thing-1.16111>.