FREDERICTON – The cost of an artificial hand can range from $7,000 to $25,000, but even the best limb is still running on basic technology.
They respond to muscle function: the user flexes and extends their forearm to make the hand open and close. But it isn’t very strong, and it’s only able to form a few movements with the fingers.
That’s where Dr. Kevin Englehart comes in. He’s working to create artificial hands and arms that respond to a person’s brainwaves.
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“We want to be able to restore all different sorts of grasps,” he said. “We want to be able to control the wrist. If the person has lost their limb at a high level we need to replace an elbow as well.”
In an intact limb, the brain sends a signal down the spinal column, which tells the muscles to move. That’s what Engelhart is replicating in his artificial hands at the Biomedical Engineering department at the University of New Brunswick. There’s similar research coming out of Chicago, also from a UNB graduate, who has created the first mind controlled leg.
“We’re trying to build intelligence into the system, so rather than the person having to learn how to use the system, the system learns how to use them,” said Englehart.
Englehart said the technology is advancing quickly.
“Some of the hands that are coming out how are getting pretty capable, but the challenge that still remains is actually decoding what the person is trying to do,” he said. “In the next five or 10 years, I can say we’re going to see tremendous advances.”
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