New Technology in Prosthetics

On November 4^th, 2012, Zac Vawter, who had his leg amputated in 2009 in a motorcycle accident, will walk up 103 flights of stairs using a bionic limb created by Centre for Bionic Medicine. This will be the first public appearance of this state of the art technology. This bionic limb uses a technique known as targeted re-innervation  Basically when a limb is normally amputated, it is fitted by a myolectric prosthetic, meaning it can only move in one direction. This device however, grows into the muscle and targets the nerves providing extra signals that can then be used to move not only the leg, but the ankle too. Even more surprisingly, the patient can feel touch and contact. It can sense how much pressure is being applied and how fast the leg is moving. This is all done through an inbuilt microcomputer.

The specifics for how this leg works are as follows, the muscle responds to nervous signals and the nervous signals respond to how the patient thinks. Electrodes act as antennae, allowing the computer to know what the person is thinking to within a thousandth of a second. Then an algorithm tells the prosthetic what the patient wants to do. Since each patient is different, the algorithm is also different. The prosthesis actually learns the patients muscle signals and react accordingly.

This article caught my eye after last weeks snbal about prosthetic limbs. I was interested in seeing how far they have actually come. I am also a huge Star Wars fan and was wondering if there is anything close to the robotic limbs they have in the movies. Needless to say, even though the limbs still cannot feel pain, I am honestly surprised at how advanced the technology is in them. The team behind this particular prosthetic leg believes it will be on the market within the next ten years. If this is on the market, I wonder what will be in the making…

  http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-10/31/thought-controlled-bionic-leg-chicago-tower