The sense of touch is returning! Prosthetics will now be able to feel temperature
Scientists have developed a new device called MiniTouch that offers people who have lost limbs the ability to feel temperature through their prosthetics. This device, which can be easily integrated into prosthetics without surgery, aims to make prosthetics more functional for amputees and improve their quality of life.
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Scientists are continuing their efforts to improve the sensations felt by prosthetics for people who have lost limbs. Researchers looking to increase the performance of the prosthetics used by individuals have come up with a remarkable new invention. This new device is called MiniTouch and can be integrated into prosthetics without the need for surgery. Developed to provide a human touch, this device was tested on a patient who had been an amputee at the wrist for over 30 years.
Those using the new device were able to feel 'temperature.' To test MiniTouch, researchers integrated it into the prosthetic of 57-year-old Fabrizio. Thanks to this device, the user was able to accurately distinguish between objects at different temperatures. In tests conducted without the device, the accuracy rate was only 33 percent.
This study, published in the journal Med, aims to make the use of prosthetics easier for amputees. MiniTouch was developed by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and works by transmitting thermal information from the fingertips of the prosthetic to the amputee's arm. Since this device is compatible with the prosthetics people already use, there is no need to produce an entirely new and custom device for individuals to start using it.
When the test user was blindfolded and asked to distinguish between human and prosthetic arms, the accuracy of MiniTouch increased from 60 percent to 80 percent. However, researchers note that the device is still not perfect, and this is due to the fact that sensations such as the softness and texture of the skin remain limited.
Prof. Solaiman Shokur, one of the senior authors of the study, stated that increasing the sensory feedback of a prosthetic could help people feel that an artificial limb is a part of their body. For this reason, he emphasized that temperature is important for providing a natural feeling. He also added that MiniTouch could help people with artificial limbs detect dangerously hot objects and distinguish between different objects.
The authors state that the device needs to be tested on a wider group of patients and that the fact that MiniTouch can be easily integrated into prosthetics is important.
However, as reported by The Guardian, the other senior author of the paper, Prof. Silvestro Micera, says that the device should not be expected to be ready for use in the near future.