Sunday, December 1, 2013

Prosthetic limbs with sense!


            Even with advanced technology, there are many disabled people caused by the war or mistakes. People weren’t able to cure disabled people but now. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been working on prosthetic limbs controlled by brain interfaces, but DARPA doesn’t have any good result from it. However, DARPA got a good result to make prosthetic limbs controlled by nerve and muscle interface recently. Reliable Neural-Interface Technology (RE-NET) from DARPA researched new peripheral interfaces using signals from nerves and muscles to both control prosthetics and to prive direct sensory feedback.

“Although the current generation of brain, or cortical, interfaces have been used to control many degrees of freedom in an advanced prosthesis, researchers are still working on improving their long-term viability and performance,” said Jack Judy, DARPA program manager. “The novel peripheral interfaces developed under RE-NET are approaching the level of control demonstrated by cortical interfaces and have better biotic and abiotic performance and reliability. Because implanting them is a lower risk and less invasive procedure, peripheral interfaces offer greater potential than penetrating cortical electrodes for near-term treatment of amputees. RE-NET program advances are already being made available to injured warfighters in clinical settings.”

A team of researchers at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) demonstrated a type of peripheral interface called targeted muscle re-innervation (TMR). By rewiring nerves from amputated limbs, new interfaces allow for prosthetic control with existing muscles. Former Army Staff Sgt. Glen Lehman, injured in Iraq, recently demonstrated improved TMR technology. In the following video, Lehman demonstrates simultaneous joint control of a prosthetic arm made possible by support from the RE-NET program.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University used a flat interface nerve electrode (FINE) to demonstrate direct sensory feedback. By interfacing with residual nerves in the patient’s partial limb, some sense of touch by the fingers is restored. Other existing prosthetic limb control systems rely solely on visual feedback. Unlike visual feedback, direct sensory feedback allows patients to move a hand without keeping their eyes on it—enabling simple tasks, like rummaging through a bag for small items, not possible with today’s prosthetics. The Case Western Reserve University video shows how direct sensory feedback makes some tasks easier. Case Western also received funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Research and Development, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The FINE is one of many different types of nerve interfaces developed under the RE-NET program.

Result of this technology is going to be significant; although this technology might be worse than one using brain interfaces directly, this can help many disabled people! Since 2000, there are more than 2,000 service members have suffered amputated limbs. Also, there are people who lost their limbs because of serious accidents. This technology would definitely help those people! Current prosthetic limbs will just help people to barely move their limbs, but with DARPA’s RE-NET, people can have prosthetic limbs with feeling; this is far superior than current one; although this will just help people to barely feel, if people can advance in this technology, people will have the prosthetic limbs that people can feel and moves based on brain interface.

Also, this technology makes people to take one more step closer to immortality; this might be exaggeration for now, but think about it. If people can basically create prosthetic limbs that are connected to brain and work like real limbs, it means that body doesn’t really matter anymore! People just have to extend this technology to organs, and even to brain, and that might be the key to immortality!

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