An amputee has been fitted with the first bionic hand that allows him to feel in real time.
Dennis Aabo Sorensen lost his hand nine years ago after an accident, now he has received a bionic one that surgically wired to the nerves in his upper arm, an Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne news release reported.
"The sensory feedback was incredible," Sorensen, a 36 year-old amputee from Denmark, said in the news release. "I could feel things that I hadn't been able to feel in over nine years. When I held an object, I could feel if it was soft or hard, round or square."
In a test run Sorensen was able to determine the shape and consistency of objects, as well as how hard he was grasping them.
Silvestro Micera and his team at EPFL and and SSSA measured the tension in artificial tendons and then turned these measurements into an electric current. That current was then turned into "an impulse that sensory nerves can interpret." A "digitally refined signal" is then sent through wires to four electrodes attached to the nerves.
"This is the first time in neuroprosthetics that sensory feedback has been restored and used by an amputee in real-time to control an artificial limb," Micera said.
"We were worried about reduced sensitivity in Dennis' nerves since they hadn't been used in over nine years," Stanisa Raspopovic, first author and scientist at EPFL and SSSA said.
The clinical study serves as the first steps towards a bionic hand that would be available to amputees; although the event of a "sensory-enhanced prosthetic "is still years in the making.
"I was more than happy to volunteer for the clinical trial, not only for myself, but to help other amputees as well."
The electrodes were removed from the patient's arm after one month due to safety restrictions associated with clinical trials, but the researchers believe the device could remain intact without causing injury or damage.
