Touch Bionics I-Limb ™ Active Prosthetic Limbs Alexander Batrakov
History of Prosthetic Limbs Prosthetic limbs have been around for 3000 years. Typically made of iron or wood. Served no real purpose. Insertion was crude. Until recently, prosthetics utilized hooks.
Hook Hands Hooked prosthetics are controlled manually. Incorporate a pulling system. Very limited in function.
The First Commercial Active Prosthetic Touch Bionics I-Limb Ultra™ Developed by David Gow of the Scottish National Health Service and built by Touch Bionics™ Major advance on previous hooked limbs. Became commercially available in 2007.
How It Works Sensors are imbedded in the arm. Impulses from the brain are read. A microprocessor controls each finger individually. Determines the amount of force necessary to grasp an object.
Future Other Bionic Limbs -Shoulders, Wrists, Elbows Smaller Price Tag -Currently: $48,000. Greater Force Exertion
Works Cited Yang, Jingzhou. "Design And Prototyping of an Active Hand Prosthetic Device." Industrial Robot: An International Journal (2005): Print. Doshi, Rajiv, Clement Yeh, and Maurice LeBlanc. "The Design And Development of a Gloveless Endoskeletal Prosthetic Hand." Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development (1998): Print