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Scientists Bring the Sense of Touch to a Robotic Arm

posted by martyb on Saturday May 22 2021, @03:16AM   
from the touching-development dept.

takyon writes:

Scientists Bring The Sense Of Touch To A Robotic Arm

A robotic arm with a sense of touch has allowed a man who is paralyzed to quickly perform tasks like pouring water from one cup into another.

The robotic arm provides tactile feedback directly to the man's brain as he uses his thoughts to control the device, a team reports [DOI: 10.1126/science.abd0380] [DX] Thursday in the journal Science.

Previous versions of the arm required the participant, Nathan Copeland, to guide the arm using vision alone.

"When I only had visual feedback, I could see that the hand had touched the object," Copeland says. "But sometimes I would go to pick it up and it would fall out."

A typical grasping task also took Copeland about 20 seconds to complete. "With sensory feedback he was able to complete it in 10," says Jennifer Collinger, an associate professor in the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh.

Journal Reference:
Sharlene N. Flesher, John E. Downey, Jeffrey M. Weiss, et al. A brain-computer interface that evokes tactile sensations improves robotic arm control [$], Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.abd0380)

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Original Submission

• NOT kicking anyone here NOT kicking anyone here (Score: 2, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Saturday May 22 2021, @01:06PM (2 children)

  by Runaway1956 (2926) on Saturday May 22 2021, @01:06PM (#1137729) Homepage Journal

  First, see my title. I'm not kicking the submitter, or Marty, or any member of staff with this post.

  I'm quite certain I've read this story before, or very similar. Searching my memory, it seems I've read this story, possibly as long ago as the late 1990s.

  My initial search turns up this story from 2017, https://www.technologyreview.com/2017/08/16/149803/prosthetics-you-can-feel/ [technologyreview.com]

  Prosthetics You Can Feel
  Surgery could give amputees sensory feedback from their prosthetic limbs.
  by Anne Traftonarchive page
  August 16, 2017

  Okay, that one is only like 3 1/2 years old. My memory says similar stories are out there . . .

  November 2016, https://time.com/4104723/a-prosthetic-hand-that-can-feel/ [time.com]

  A Prosthetic Hand That Can Feel

  gor Spetic, 49, lost his right hand in a work related accident five years ago. But on Oct. 9, he got to bring home an innovative prosthetic hand for the first time, one that not only has more precise gripping, but gives him back his sense of touch.

  The hand was created by researchers at Case Western Reserve University, which was granted $4.4 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for their work creating a prosthetic hand that can feel. The goal is to make a hand that allows someone to function in a way that allows him to forget he doesn’t’t have the real version.

  Yay Case Western. :^) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_Western_Reserve_University [wikipedia.org]

  Still, it seems there should be something older . . .
  Promising lead at livescience gives me a guru meditation - https://www.livescience.com/43125-man-gets-first-bionic-hand-that-feels.html [livescience.com]

  April 1994 - https://journals.lww.com/jpojournal/Abstract/1994/00620/Sense_of_Feel_for_Lower_Limb_Amputees__A_Phase_One.3.aspx [lww.com]

  To be fair, lower extremity prosthetics are almost certainly easier than hands and fingers, by an order of magnitude at least.

  ORIGINAL ARTICLE: PDF ONLY
  Sabolich John A. CPO; Ortega, Giovani M.
  JPO Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics: April 1994 - p 36-41

  ABSTRACT

  To determine the effects of a sensory feedback device developed at Sabolich Prosthetic & Research Center for lowerlimb amputees, 12 transfemoral (aboveknee) and 12 transtibial (below-knee) unilateral amputees were recruited from a convenience population for testing. Pre- and post-testing procedures included: symmetry of weight distribution, duration of single limb standing balance over the involved side, and symmetry of step length and of stance phase times.

  After subjects completed the pre-testing protocol, the Sense-of-Feel (SOF) device was incorporated into the pre-test socket and five- to six-hour familiarization periods were provided. Post-testing was performed while wearing the SOF.

  It is unclear, from the story, what makes this University of Pittsburgh work stand out, or how it makes significant advances over similar efforts. Maybe it is better than previous efforts, but we aren't told how, or why it is better. I note that the photo posted with the story, of Copeland doing a fist bump with President Obama, is dated 2016. Is NPR running an old story here? Maybe not - the sciencemag abstract is dated May 2021 - https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6544/831 [sciencemag.org]

  So, maybe University of Pittsburgh just thought it was a good time to drum up some publicity, and they've published old work?

  --
  Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.

  Starting Score:	1		point
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• Patented, Dec 2002 (Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Saturday May 22 2021, @02:03PM

  by Runaway1956 (2926) on Saturday May 22 2021, @02:03PM (#1137739) Homepage Journal

  https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/c5/d0/9d/787d2b0a5087a5/US6500210.pdf [googleapis.com]

  SYSTEMAND METHOD FOR PROVIDING A
  SENSE OF FEEL IN A PROSTHETIC OR
  SENSORY IMPARED LIMB
  This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No.
  08/281,491 filed on Jul. 27, 1994, now abandoned, which
  was a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/942,205 filed
  on Sep. 8, 1992, now abandoned.
  FIELD OF THE INVENTION
  The present invention relates to devices for providing a
  person with a Sense of feel in a prosthetic or Sensory impaired limb.
  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
  The present invention is directed to a method for provid ing Sensory perceptions in a Sensor System of a prosthetic
  device. The method comprises Sensing an external operation magnitude from a plurality of Sensor groups, each Sensor
  group Sensing a fraction of the external operation magni
  tude. A plurality of Sensory inputs from the Sensor groups is
  generated in response to the external operation. An electrical
  input signal with a magnitude also is generated. The elec
  trical input signal is controlled with the plurality of Sensory inputs to create a plurality of Sensory output Signals collec
  tively having a Stimulus with a collective Stimulus magni tude corresponding to the electrical input signal magnitude.
  Each Sensory output Signal has a fraction of the Stimulus
  magnitude corresponding to the fraction of the external
  operation magnitude Sensed by one of the Sensor groups.
  Each of the Sensory output signals is transmitted to a
  designated one of a plurality of contacts through a desig
  nated one of a plurality of channels.
  Still further, the present invention comprises a Sensory
  feedback system for use with a prosthetic device. The
  Sensory feedback System comprises a power Source that is
  adapted to transmit an electrical input Signal. Included are a
  plurality of Sensors each operable to create a Sensory inputs
  in response to an external operation thereon. Further, the
  Sensory feedback System comprises a plurality of contacts
  each adapted to receive a Sensory output signal. The Sensory
  feedback System includes a plurality of channels each con
  nected to one of the plurality of contacts and adapted to carry
  one of the Sensory output Signals to the contact to which it
  is connected. The Sensory feedback System also comprises a
  control and processing center adapted to receive the elec
  trical input signal from the power Source and to receive the
  Sensory inputs from the pressure Sensors, to control the
  electrical input Signal by applying the Sensory inputs to the
  electrical input signal to create the Sensory output signals,
  and to transmit the Sensory output signals to the contacts
  through the channels.

  To my untrained eye, this kinda looks like a patent troll patent.

  --
  Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.

  Parent

• Re:NOT kicking anyone here (Score: 3, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Saturday May 22 2021, @03:21PM

  by PiMuNu (3823) on Saturday May 22 2021, @03:21PM (#1137750)

  Reading the abstract only, I believe this article was referring to a direct brain interface - the patients had a spinal cord injury (partial or total loss of use of all four limbs and torso).

  Parent