A Lifelike Prosthetic Arm
From: Technology Review - May/June 2009
By: Michael Rosenwald

Thanks to a new surgical procedure, arm amputees can intuitively control a
bionic limb for the first time.

People who have lost an arm have not traditionally had much hope of ever
regaining meaningful function. Prosthetic arms have been controlled in a
rudimentary way, by transforming residual shoulder movements or muscle
signals into the ­simplest movement commands. These artificial arms cannot do
two things at once, much less three or four. Amputees often toss them in the
closet out of sheer frustration, somewhat stung by the fact that leg amputees
have far better products available to them.

But the situation is starting to change, thanks to a team led by Todd Kuiken,
director of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago's Center for Bionic
Medicine. Kuiken has developed a novel surgical technique that, when paired
with both motorized prosthetic arms already on the market and experimental
bionic arms developed through a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) program, affords amputees a remarkable degree of dexterity. Claudia
Mitchell, who lost her arm in a motorcycle wreck in 2004, remembers putting
on a prosthesis after undergoing Kuiken's procedure and seeing it work for
the first time: "You could not wipe that grin off of my face. I can now iron
a shirt again like nobody's business." Mitchell has become a hit at parties.
"People can't believe how this thing works," she says. "They want to see me
do things with it."

Read the entire article at:
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22479/
(access may require a password)

Patients testing the prosthetic arm (video)
http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=245

Related articles:
A Prosthetic Arm That Acts Like a Real One
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/18134/

Tongue Control
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/21706/

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http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/21699/

Nanotubes on the Brain
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/21407/

Amputee Gets a Shot at the Olympics
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/20806/