Man Controls Bionic Hand with his Mind

24 year old year old Austrian, Patrick, opted to have his non-functioning hand that was injured in a workplace accident amputated and replaced by a bionic hand he controls by thought alone.

"I think it was very cool - I did not do things with my hand for three years and then you put on the new hand and one moment later, you can move it. It's great."

The following  video shows him demonstrating his bionic hand as he pours a glass of water and ties his shoes.   

Amputee Patrick demonstrates his new bionic hand

This sort of mind control of bionic limbs is referred to as Brain-Machine Interface (BMI),  and ranges from the non- invasive: using biofeedback to control movement either by having the subject learn to recognize and alter his own brainwaves or by having an algorithm that recognizes the waves associated with specific movements and then responds accordingly; to the invasive- where electrodes are implanted directly into the brain for more nuanced and accurate feedback.

For a month, 26 year old Italian  Pierpaolo Petruzziello had his amputated arm connected to LifeHand, a robotic limb developed as part of an extensive five-year, three million dollar research project funded by the European Union, carried out at  the biorobotics lab at University Campus Bio-Medico  in Rome.  The experiment's goal was to allow him to sense and control the arm with his thoughts.

This BMI was minimally invasive- results were achieved by  implanting four electrodes in his left arm to create electrical impulses to stimulate the nerves that remained above the amputation site.  Pierpaolo found that if he utilized the "phantom limb" side effect (a sensation common to amputees of perceiving that they still have their missing limb), he could eventually move the bionic hand by thought alone, by imagining he was moving his own no-longer-existing hand. After Petruzziello recovered from the microsurgery he underwent to implant the electrodes in his arm, it only took him a few days to master use of the robotic hand. By the time the experiment was over, the hand obeyed the commands it received from the man's brain in an impressive 95 percent of cases.

"It's a matter of mind, of concentration. When you think of it as your hand and forearm, it all becomes easier."- Petruzziello

Peiropaolo talks about learning to control his bionic hand with his mind

Nike's sporty branded prosthetic leg

While engineers and doctors are working on the responsiveness of prosthesis, designers are working on their aesthetics- coming up with designs that range from sporty or cyber-cool, to refined and feminine.  Nike has gone as far as to come up with a Nike branded prosthetic leg, and it seems that prosthesis are rapidly progressing from simple medical corrective devices to personal fashion statements, in  the same way eyeglasses have before them. Another innovation that may drive this trend is the meteoric growth of 3-D printing technology, which makes a "wardrobe" of differently styled prosthesis a newly affordable option.


 


"I predict that as we march into this 21st century, the changes we'll see in prosthetic designs [will be that] the artificial prosthetic will become more intimate with the biological human body. There will be a mergence, if you will. The prosthesis will be attached to the body mechanically by a titanium shaft that goes right into the residual bone, wherein you can't take the artificial limb off. Another intimate connection will be electrical. The nervous system of the human will be able to communicate directly with the synthetic nervous system of the artificial limb."
-Hugh Herr
Double amputee, director of the Biomechatronics Group at the MIT Media Lab, and leading bionic designer