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A new world of bionic limbs are making their way to market. These prosthetics combine improved functionality and mobility with enhanced aesthetics, giving those who have lost their limbs the opportunity to take back some of their previous function. One of the most promising of these new devices is the i-LIMB, developed by David Gow of Scotland.


The i-LIMB

The first recorded instance of an artificial limb was found in Capua, Italy and is thought to have been created in 300 B.C. It was an artificial leg (the Roman Capua Leg) and was made of copper and wood. Since then, advances in biomedical science, microprocessor technology and computer aided design techniques have made advanced artificial replacements like the i-LIMB possible.

Unlike older model prosthetics, the i-LIMB allows users to control each digit individually, providing a wide array of grip options. Standard bionic hands only allowed for control over the thumb and one finger, the other fingers were there mostly for show. This meant that complex actions like dealing cards or threading a needle were incredibly difficult. With full articulation, the i-LIMB is making tasks that might have otherwise been difficult and unnatural simple.

The hand offers three different gripping styles — precision, power and key grip and is controlled via a two-input myoelectric input. Electric signals generated by the muscle are picked up by electrodes attached to the surface of the amputation site. The limb translates these electric impulses and uses that information to move the digits.

As important to many patients as the improved movement range is the fact that the i-LIMB allows for some extremely realistic coverings — from a distance it’s difficult to tell that you’re looking at a prosthetic.

Future bionic limbs being developed by DARPA and other organizations hope to further integrate prosthetics with the patient. Targetted sensory reinnervation (TSR) is one technique being explored. Scientists hope to use it to return feeling to amputees by rerouting sensory impulses from the amputation site to the chest. Combined with sensors in the finger tips of the prosthetic this could allow patients to feel temperature and pressure.

For now, the first set of amputees have been fitted with the i-LIMB. From all reports it is a vast improvement on the bionic limbs that have come before it. We can only hope that these improvements continue.

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