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Recent technology created at Johns Hopkins University may be able to allow amputees to have tactile sensation through their prosthetics. This electronic skin, dubbed the &ldquo;e-dermis&rdquo;, is a sensor that goes over the fingertips of a prosthetic hand and allows the user to receive sensation of touch and pain as they would through normal skin.&nbsp;<blockquote>
&ldquo;After many years, I felt my hand, as if a hollow shell got filled with life again,&rdquo; -Amputee testing e-dermis
</blockquote>Synthetic nerve endings, replicated via a network of sensors laced into rubber and fabric, relay impulses to existing peripheral nerves to create a realistic sense of external stimuli. One of the benefits of the e-dermis is that users will not have to purchase a new prosthetic to utilize it, they can simply add it to their current assistive device and begin using it.Enabling amputees to feel pain in a prosthetic limb may seem like an undesirable and pointless feat, however if the user of the device is able to sense pain in the appendage, they can avoid contact with a stimulus that is potentially damaging to the prosthetic. If you accidentally touch a hot iron, you pull your hand away to prevent injury. If you felt no pain, you may remain in contact with the heat and allow damage to occur. The latter is the case with prosthetics, and e-dermis provides a mechanism for amputees to sense this pain and prevent damage.The developers claim that the device, like the human hand, is capable of sensing a range of perception, from soft touch to intense pain. The intricacy of this device arose from tracking brain activity of a person using e-dermis with electroencephalography. Though it cannot sense temperature, it is very sensitive to object curvature and sharpness.Johns Hopkins is a leading researcher in prostheses, and with their inception of the e-dermis, they may have given birth to a new functional capacity of prosthetic devices. With positive results from one subject who repeatedly tested the technology, and four other amputee volunteers partaking in experimentation, the e-dermis has a very promising future.<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/JHUBME?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JHUBME</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/HopkinsMedicine?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HopkinsMedicine</a> researchers have made &ldquo;painful&rdquo; improvements to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/prosthetics?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#prosthetics</a>, giving rise to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/artificial?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#artificial</a> hands that can communicate the sensation of pain in combination with other tactile information to their users: <a href="https://t.co/tNFQ7G7tvr">https://t.co/tNFQ7G7tvr</a> <a href="https://t.co/qddCXCtrvu">pic.twitter.com/qddCXCtrvu</a>
&mdash; Science Robotics (@SciRobotics) <a href="https://twitter.com/SciRobotics/status/1009506918119899137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 20, 2018</a>
</blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Source:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180620171004.htm">Science Daily</a>

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E-Dermis Allows Amputees to Sense Touch Through Prosthetic Hand

Future of Medicine

Recent technology created at Johns Hopkins University may be able to allow amputees to have tactile sensation through their prosthetics. This electronic skin, dubbed the ...

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