Ad: Manage updates with the Download App

prosthetic arm

Robots in development can reach out and touch someone

Robotic prostheses may have a way to go before they work exactly like human limbs, but researchers are making great strides. A team out of Georgia Tech is working on new technology that could give these robotic limbs something akin to a sense of touch.

Thanks to tactile-sensing material that covers the entire prosthesis and software that integrates the gathered data, this robotic arm can maneuver through clutter and distinguish between hard and soft objects as it grips, pushes, and pulls more intuitively.

"Up until now, the dominant strategies for robot manipulation have discouraged contact between the robot's … Read more

Man embeds smartphone into prosthetic arm

Fifty-year-old Brit Trevor Prideaux is an ordinary man with an extraordinary idea that could make it easier for others who are missing limbs to use smartphones--embed a phone dock right into your prosthetic.

It's worked for him.

The catering manager from Somerset, England, who was born without a left forearm, came up with the idea to integrate a smartphone into his prosthetic after using an iPhone.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Prideaux admits "...it became clear that this piece of technology was not ideally suited to be used with only one hand. When testing an iPhone, with the thoughts of purchase, I had to balance it on my prosthetic limb to text." … Read more