An interactive guide to some of the latest developments in bionic body parts
The last couple of years have marked a turning point for bionic technologies. In March 2014, a dancer who lost her leg in the Boston Marathon bombing returned to the stage on a prosthetic foot and ankle. In June of the same year, a paraplegic man made the World Cup’s opening kick using a mind-controlled exoskeleton. Recently FDA approved the first robotic exoskeleton for home use. Here, we size up standout recent advances in restoring movement to those who’ve lost it.
IMES System / Illinois Institute of Technology
Implantable myoelectric sensors in muscles that allow a user to signal multiple movements at the same time with an artificial limb.
A U.S. Marine, SSgt James Sides, as a recipient of its highly anticipated IMES System (implantable myoelectric sensor) – an experimental system that holds the promise of being the first minimally invasive, intuitive, multi-channel control system for prosthetics intended for long term use. The IMES System is currently being studied under the Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) regulations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). AMF’s ongoing trial with injured veterans at the Walter Reed National Medical Military Center anticipates subjects intuitively operating three different prosthetic movements simultaneously: opening and closing the hand, rotating the wrist, and moving the thumb. Combining these three movements enables several grasps that are invaluable for performing everyday tasks.
Neurobridge / Battelle A brain chip that bypasses damaged nerves to stimulate the muscles of a paralyzed arm, hand, or fingers directly.
Battelle has developed a breakthrough technology that empowers paralyzed patients to regain conscious control of their fingers, hand and wrist. The Battelle NeuroLife Neural Bypass Technology skips damaged areas of the nervous system to allow the brain to communicate directly with muscles.
Luke Arm / Deka A prosthetic limb controlled by electrodes at the attachment site and a joystick-like sensor on a user’s shoe.
The LUKE arm is a modular prosthetic arm that is configurable for different levels of amputation including transradial, transhumeral, and shoulder disarticulation. In its maximum configuration, it has 10 powered degrees of freedom including a powered shoulder, humeral rotator, and wrist flexor with ulnar/radial deviation. Multiple powered degrees of freedom can be moved at the same time. The hand has many preprogrammed grips using four individually controlled degrees of freedom. The hand also includes a sensor that provides grip force feedback. The LUKE arm provides resistance against light rain and fine dust, allowing wearers peace of mind when using the arm outside the home.
Lifehand 2 / EPFL (Switzerland) and SSSA (Italy) A robotic hand that gives a user a sense of touch and the ability to determine if an object is hard or soft, round or square.
LifeHand 2 aims to create a completely implantable prosthesis system, richly sensorized and crontrolled through the patient's nervous system, with a dexterity comparable to a naturale limb. Studies, which have been carried out furthering the results achieved in 2008, led in 2013 to this latest experimental phase called LifeHand 2. The research project enabling experimentation was named NEMESIS (NEurocontrolled MEchatronic Hand ProstheSIS) and was financed by the Italian Ministry of Health.
ReWalk / ReWalk Robotics A motorized exoskeleton that assists with movement at the hips, knees, and ankles to help paraplegics stand and walk.
ReWalk is a wearable robotic exoskeleton that provides powered hip and knee motion to enable individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) to stand upright, walk, turn, and climb and descend stairs*. ReWalk is the first exoskeleton to receive FDA clearance for personal and rehabilitation use in the United States.
Argus® II Retinal Prosthesis System
The Argus® II Retinal Prosthesis System ("Argus II") is also known as the bionic eye or the retinal implant. It is intended to provide electrical stimulation of the retina to induce visual perception in blind individuals.
It is indicated for use in patients with severe to profound retinitis pigmentosa. A miniature video camera housed in the patient's glasses captures a scene. The video is sent to a small patient-worn computer (i.e., the video processing unit – VPU) where it is processed and transformed into instructions that are sent back to the glasses via a cable. These instructions are transmitted wirelessly to an antenna in the retinal implant. The signals are then sent to the electrode array, which emits small pulses of electricity. These pulses bypass the damaged photoreceptors and stimulate the retina's remaining cells, which transmit the visual information along the optic nerve to the brain, creating the perception of patterns of light. Patients learn to interpret these visual patterns with their retinal implant.
ITAP / Stanmore Implants A bone implant that provides a stable, irritation-free attachment point for a prosthetic limb.
The ITAP amputee implant is osseointegrated, i.e. forms a direct interface between the implant and the bone, without intervening soft tissue. The ITAP protrudes out through the amputated limb and provides a secure attachment point for the prosthetic limb. This means that loads experienced during daily activities, such as walking, can be taken through the skeleton rather than through soft tissue.
Pulley-Based Tendon Transfer / Oregon State University Surgically implanted pulleys that reattach tendons in the hand to undamaged muscles in the wrist to restore some mechanical function.
Implanted engineering mechanism for attaching multiple tendons to one muscle significantly improved hand function in grasping tasks when compared with the current procedure.
BiOM T2 System / BiOM A battery-powered foot and ankle with an internal spring that compresses to absorb impact and releases to propel the foot.
The Cyborg Beast / E-nable A Global Network Of Passionate Volunteers Using 3D Printing To Give The World A "Helping Hand." A 3-D–printed plastic hand, mechanically controlled by movement of the wrist or elbow, designed by an open-source community.
The e-NABLE Community is an amazing group of individuals from all over the world who are using their 3D printers to create free 3D printed hands and arms for those in need of an upper limb assistive device.
They are people who have put aside their political, religious, cultural and personal differences – to come together and collaborate on ways to help improve the open source 3D printable designs for hands and arms for those who were born missing fingers or who have lost them due to war, disease or natural disaster.
The e-NABLE Community is made up of teachers, students, engineers, scientists, medical professionals, tinkerers, designers, parents, children, scout troops, artists, philanthropists, dreamers, coders, makers and every day people who just want to make a difference and help to “Give The World A Helping Hand.”