New Prosthetic Hand That Can See Objects, Will Soon Begin Trials
May 5th, 2017: A new age of prosthetic limbs, that allow the users to reach for objects automatically and without any physical effort. Just like a real limb, the new age prosthetic limb will only require you to think about the action rather than physically concentrating on it. This unique range of new age prosthetic limbs is an attempt by the researchers to introduce people to a new type of limb replacement.
This cutting edge research was led by a team of experts from Newcastle University. The group seems to have developed a prosthetic hand that can see things in front of it, using a simple Logitech webcam. The prosthetic limb can then interpret what it sees using its software and initiate an appropriate movement to grasp the object.
The limb relies on a Logitech Web camera for visual input. When the prosthetic limb is engaged, the camera snaps a picture of the object that is in front of it. The hand then uses complex algorithms to identify shapes in the picture and then trigger a series of movements accordingly.
Dubbed as the "hands with eyes", the research team from New Castle has decided to team up with Tyne Hospital's NHS foundation trust in order to offer the new age prosthetic limbs to patients at the Freeman Hospital.
The findings of the research were published in the Journal of Neural Engineering. The co-author of the co-author of the research, Dr. Kianoush Nazarpour was is a senior Biomedical Engineering Lecturer was quoted saying-"Prosthetic limbs have changed very little in the past 100 years - the design is much better and the materials' are lighter weight and more durable but they still work in the same way. Using computer vision, we have developed a bionic hand which can respond automatically - in fact, just like a real hand, the user can reach out and pick up a cup or a biscuit with nothing more than a quick glance in the right direction."