Scientists in China are working on a prosthetic “skin” that could tell people when their artificial limb is putting too much pressure on their body, letting the user experience a kind of pain or discomfort they usually would not have felt.
As ScienceAlert reported, based on a study published in the disconcertingly named journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, researchers in China have developed a sensor that slips inside a prosthetic socket, right between the artificial limb and the person’s residual limb. It tracks where pressure occurs, how hard it is, and how long it lasts.
Some pressure is fine. But if the same spot keeps getting squeezed again and again, it can cause inflammation, ulcers, and other tissue damage. It also throws off someone’s balance or changes their gait, which can have a knock-on effect that causes pain elsewhere, say, in the hip or on an opposite limb, after the user has to compensate.
Scientists Built a Prosthetic ‘Skin’ That Can Warn Users Before They Get Hurt
Researchers tested the sound with a robotic hand before putting it into the prosthetic sockets of three people with lower limb amputations. They ran this prosthetic skin through a gauntlet of day-to-day activities, like sitting, walking, climbing stairs, jumping, and running, and all while sensors were keeping track of what was happening inside the socket.
The researchers tested the technology on a robotic hand before putting it into the prosthetic sockets of three people with lower-limb amputations. The participants sat, walked, climbed stairs, jumped, and ran while the sensors monitored what was happening inside the socket.
The system is designed to distinguish between normal pressure and pressure that may signal damage, and it can even detect pressures that could lead to injury; when it does, it becomes more sensitive to similar pressure later on as it develops a kind of electronic memory.
In a sense, it simulates pain signals without causing pain. In tests, the sensor helped identify spots of excessive pressure caused by changes in participants’ running gait and was able to correctly detect most brief and prolonged moments of discomfort.
The technology is in its infancy and requires significant downsizing to be viable for everyday use. The researchers also need to figure out how to make it wireless and durable enough to handle all the sweat it’s going to get bombarded with on a hot summer’s day, but should those improvements be made.
And if all future testing goes well, it could one day warn prosthetic users about the dangers of the pressure being applied to their bodies before it results in injury.
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