Luke Skywalker’s bionic hand in Star Wars may not be out of reach much longer. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US have come up with an ultrasonic sensor that lets those with amputated hands to control each of their prosthetic fingers individually.
It’s brilliant because it makes fine motor movements with the hand possible. Commercial devices currently in the market cannot do that yet.
The 28-year-old musician Jason Barnes is one of the first to test the technology. He lost his arm five years ago and is now able to play the piano for the first time after all these years. In fact, he can play the Star Wars theme song.
“Our prosthetic arm is powered by ultrasound signals,” said Gil Weinberg, the Georgia Tech College of Design professor working on the project. “By using this new technology, the arm can detect which fingers an amputee wants to move, even if they don’t have fingers.”
The team used ultrasound technology and machine learning to make it possible for Barnes to establish finger-by-finger control. They worked with other Georgia Tech professors to attach an ultrasound probe to Barnes’s arm.
The probe is just like the one doctors use to see babies in the womb. This helped them understand how his muscles moved and feed each such movement into an algorithm that can quickly figure out which muscle Barnes wants to move.
“It’s completely mind-blowing,” Barnes said. “This new arm allows me to do whatever grip I want, on the fly, without changing modes or pressing a button. I never thought we’d be able to do this.”
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