First Bionic Arm With Functional Touch Sensors Given To Amputee

One of the loftiest goals in robotics is to eventually create prosthetics that are as close to natural limbs as possible. This includes bringing back a sense of touch. The world has just come one step closer to realizing this dream with an amputee being given the first portable bionic arm that actually provides some level of sensation.

The arm basically features an array of sophisticated sensors that uses tiny electrodes to send signals to the brain that it can interpret as a sense of touch, Futurism notes. This is done through the onboard computer in the arm that is connected to each artificial extremity.

This is also a result of decades of research and effort by a multitude of researchers spanning different countries, including Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. The subject who received the arm is Almerina Mascarello and while she plays a significant role in what may well be the future of prosthetics, she is just thankful for the little things that the arm allows her to do.

Speaking to the BBC, Mascarello says that the arm enables her to perform small tasks like getting dressed on her own. For an amputee, this is a big deal.

"The feeling is spontaneous as if it were your real hand; you're finally able to do things that before were difficult, like getting dressed, putting on shoes - all mundane but important things - you feel complete," she said.

The technology that came with sensory information was actually around since 2014. However, the equipment that it was housed in was comparably larger and could not be used by amputees in any practical sense.

For now, the sense of touch that the subjects experience is limited to hardness and texture. Eventually, the researchers hope to develop the technology far enough that having a bionic arm won’t feel all that different from having a normal arm.