Prostheses are becoming a more
common thing in the United States. Every population is using them from veterans
scarred by war to young children born with an abnormality and everyone in between.
When prosthetics are first talked about the first thing that commonly comes to
mind is an artificial limb or maybe a couple of them however, prosthetics can
be any external technology that can be used either internal or externally to
improve someone’s living.
Some well known prostheses include
implantable biofilm to damaged neural areas to reestablish a nerve connection
to allow afferent and efferent signals to bypass the site of damage. Other
prostheses may include the surgical implantation of electrodes or miniature
computers most commonly into the brain to actively reverse a negative stimulus
in the brain or to stimulate an area of the brain damaged by trauma to
stimulate the signaling to a target tissue. These implants can do a lot more
than send electrical signals through the body some have finite sensory applications.
For example, a prosthetic retinal film can be put into the eyeball of someone
who is completely blind and his or her vision may be restored fully depending
on if they previously had full vision. A sensory prosthetic can only do so much
for the recipient however, if the recipient for example was born blind then a
prosthetic will restore function to the eye but the brain will have no idea how
to process it because it never experienced that sensory input. A prosthetic device has been invented for
nearly every part of the body and its boundaries and rehabilitation methods are
constantly being expanded.
What about prosthetics that do not require invasive installation? Artificial limb prosthetics abilities have been stretched further than any sci-fi movie stated in this blogs introductory post. Within the last half-decade we have been able to develop prosthetic limbs that can fully be automated by a neural impulse but the advancements do not stop there. Within the last three years we have been able to produce an artificial skin for the artificial limb that can send sensory signals back to brain such as touch, heat, and grip. This connection allows for communication between the hand and brain in both directions. Well as you are reading this you’d imagine that this technology must cost an arm and a leg; no pun intended. What if I told you the symbiotic evolution of prosthetic limbs and the 3-D printing are heavily intertwined. As 3-D printing technological efficiency has developed the cost of a prosthetic limb has decreased. 3-D printing can print moving parts of a limb out of durable plastic cutting the cost of handcrafted limbs specific to the recipient. These fully bionic limbs that can sense heat and touch combined with the low manufacturing cost has made prosthetic limbs for attainable to every population. As these advancements continue to rapidly come to market the price of these updated prosthetics will remain relatively the same similar to the release of new Apple Iphones.
What about prosthetics that do not require invasive installation? Artificial limb prosthetics abilities have been stretched further than any sci-fi movie stated in this blogs introductory post. Within the last half-decade we have been able to develop prosthetic limbs that can fully be automated by a neural impulse but the advancements do not stop there. Within the last three years we have been able to produce an artificial skin for the artificial limb that can send sensory signals back to brain such as touch, heat, and grip. This connection allows for communication between the hand and brain in both directions. Well as you are reading this you’d imagine that this technology must cost an arm and a leg; no pun intended. What if I told you the symbiotic evolution of prosthetic limbs and the 3-D printing are heavily intertwined. As 3-D printing technological efficiency has developed the cost of a prosthetic limb has decreased. 3-D printing can print moving parts of a limb out of durable plastic cutting the cost of handcrafted limbs specific to the recipient. These fully bionic limbs that can sense heat and touch combined with the low manufacturing cost has made prosthetic limbs for attainable to every population. As these advancements continue to rapidly come to market the price of these updated prosthetics will remain relatively the same similar to the release of new Apple Iphones.
External prostheses also include exoskeleton technology. Termed for its external form of allowing for stability like a bugs skeleton, exoskeletons can be nonspecific to the recipients body measurements but can still offer support to the patient if they can not stand on their own while advance exoskeletons may preform the movement for the individual with little help from the individual.
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A pleased young boy with his 3-D printed prosthetic hand
http://cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/cheats/2013/06/18/now-you-can-3-d-print-prosthetic-hands/jcr:content/image.img.2000.jpg/1371558697309.cached.jpg
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Prosthetic hand equipped with temperature and touch receptors to allow user to apply his or her desired pressure. In this picture the user is applying enough pressure on a grape without splitting it.
http://wp.streetwise.co/wp-content/uploads//2014/05/DEKA-Arm-System-Details-Specs-of-DEKA-Arm-Prosthesis-1024x682.jpg
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Performance prosthetic legs are commonly used by disabled track athletes
http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/2-artificial-limbs-flex-foot-carbon-660.jpg
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Shown is a lower extremity exoskeleton. Its major role includes reducing stress on joints, improving posture, and walking assistance
http://www.arisplex.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/AP20130039.jpg
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The concept of artificial skin sounds very interesting! You mention that the artificial skin allows sensory signals such as touch, heat, and grip to be sent back to brain. I am curious how is the brain's wiring changed so that it receives the signals from the artificial skin instead of a person's real skin?
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how far we've gotten with prosthetic limbs. I remember it was only a few months ago that news popped up about a teenager creating a prototype of a prosthetic limb that only costs $350. I think that was the first mention of prosthetic limbs being created from 3D printing. Now, only 3 months later, we're already set onto enabling sensors in the limbs that send signals to the brain. We're really not far from robotic suits now that there are already prototypes of exoskeletons that can reduce stress on the body.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I was little and watched animations where they had prosthetic limbs that allows sensory signals, and back then I never even thought that it could actually be true! Especially prosthetic retinal film, where the brain recieves what this robotic device sends, processes it and let you see the image. I remember when I was little my parents always said things such as you only got one pair of eyes, so you have to protect them, don't do anything harmful to your eyes. And look what we've got now.
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