Roboticists and doctors from EPFL (Switzerland) and SSSA (Italy) have created a new sort of prosthetic hand called the Lifehand 2 that allows an amputee to feel and sense like a real hand, this is done by connecting electrodes to the nervous system which the sends information to the brain and allows the user to feel even allowing an amputee to determine the hardness of the object.
The prosthetic hand is so realistic that it “has allowed an amputee to feel as though his old hand was back, during a series of 700 tests”. The Lifehand 2 is a huge improvement over current prosthetic hands as users can’t feel the hardness or modify the grip according to what they are holding in their hands, with this new technology amputee’s can even distinguish the stiffness of the object within 3 seconds of touching it. Here is a video demonstrating the Lifehand 2:
This technology has seen a huge improvement over the past couple of years as materials of which the prosthetic legs and hands are made from have become lighter, more flexible and look more realistic. As of now the project is still being worked on and we won’t see this technology actually being implemented until a couple of years from now, but since the results are very promising we could see this technology being developed even faster then it currently already is.
