We have seen some interesting prosthetic hands in the past, where they are all definitely able to do their bit to make our lives easier – especially for those who have already lost their limbs in some way or another, but much work and research can still be made to improve the prosthetic hand. This time around, researchers from the University of Chicago have come up with an interesting prosthetic hand that when fitted on a monkey, it will provide an artificial sense of touch after pairing it up with brain stimulation. In a nutshell, the scientists successfully replicated the sensations of pressure as the prosthetic hand grabbed an object by sending electrical signals to different parts of the brain.
For those who want to find out more about how this particular technology would be able to work, the University of Chicago researchers have already published a paper that talks about stimulating a prosthetic limb wearer’s brain with electrical signals in detail, where that would be able to replicate feelings of touch. Theoretically speaking, since it worked with monkeys, it should also work just fine on humans, although there are still plenty of kinks and issues left to be ironed out before something like this can be commercially available and ready.
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