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CONTROL OF BIONIC
ARMS AS A RESULT OF
HARMONY WITH BRAIN
SIGNALS
BY BARAN BAYDEN
In humans, arm amputation (surgical removal of the limb from the body) or limb deficiency due to congenital
reasons can be seen. The quality of life of people with limb deficiency, disabled people, is greatly affected by this
situation. However, with the development of technology, it is aimed to increase the quality of life of people with
disabilities like this. Prostheses are one of the most important things invented for this purpose. Thanks to
prostheses, it is aimed to fill the missing limb with artificial products. Primitive prostheses were the first to
appear. These prostheses were generally used on generally straight limbs such as legs because they had no
mobility. Primitive prostheses improved the quality of life for the disabled to some extent, but more was needed.
With the developments in the field of technology, the
robotics and sensor sectors have also developed together.
Sensors capable of very precise measurements and
robotic systems capable of maneuvers were invented.
Thanks to the developments in this sector, there has been
some mobilization in the medical sector. Led by these
developments, the first bionic arm study, the arm that
can be controlled by the brain command, was announced
at the First International Rehabilitation Robots Workshop
in Ottawa, Canada, in June 1988. After this bionic arm,
R&D studies were carried out. Thanks to these studies,
bionic arm technology developed. These R&Ds had only
one goal, and that was to improve the quality of life of
people with disabilities. As a matter of fact, we see with
the recent developments that really good products
emerge as a result of these efforts.
Most recently, it was led by Max Ortiz Catalan, associate
professor at the Chalmers University of Technology,
in collaboration with Sahlgrenska University Hospital,
University of Gothenburg, and Integrum AB Company
in Gothenburg, Sweden. Researchers from the Medical
University of Vienna and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology also took part in the research.
As a result of these studies, a first occurred and people
who had an arm amputation (whose arm was amputated
by surgical intervention) became able to experience the
sense of touch with the "mind-controlled arm
prosthesis" they use in their daily lives.
A study published in The New England Journal of
Medicine reported on three Swedish patients who
had been living with this new technology for
several years. This technology is one of the most
highly interactive interfaces between man and
machine in the world. The improvement is
noteworthy: Patients used a mind-controlled
prosthesis for up to seven years in their daily lives.
For the last few years, they have been living with
a brand new function: the sense of touch in their
prosthetic hands. It's a brand new concept for
artificial limbs, called neuromusculoskeletal
prostheses, as they are attached to the nerves,
muscles, and skeleton of the user. This new concept
of the neuromusculoskeletal prosthesis is unique
because of the fact that it offers several distinct
features not combined in other prosthetic
technologies around the world:
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