A bionic hand that will bring hope to thousands of bomb-blast victims and road crash survivors is being pioneered in Newcastle.
Scientists at the city’s university are constructing a hand which, for the first time in the UK, will communicate directly with the brain.
Reminiscent of Luke Skywalker’s artificial hand in the Star Wars films, electrodes in the bionic limb will wrap around nerve endings in the arm, sending back real-time information about temperature, pressure and force.
One Tyneside soldier, who was fitted with a bionic arm after his right arm was blown off by a rocket-propelled grenade during a gunfight with Taliban extremists, today welcomed the £1.4million research project.
Led by Dr Kianoush Nazarpour, a lecturer in Biomedical Engineering at Newcastle University, the team constructing the bionic hand hope to develop a number of technologies to create a limb that more closely mirrors the real thing.
Dr Nazarpour said: “The UK leads the way in the design of prosthetic limbs, but until now one of the limiting factors has been the technology to allow the hand to communicate with the brain.
“If we can design a system that allows this two-way communication it would help people to naturally reach out and pick up a glass, for example, whilst maintaining eye contact in a conversation, or pick up an apple without bruising it.
“This will advance the field of prosthetics, provide enhanced function to prosthesis users, and also reduce the time involved to learn how to use the device because the movements will come naturally. The technology will also have applications for patients with neurological conditions where reduced sensation is a factor.”
Andrew Garthwaite, 27, of South Shields, travelled across Europe in 2012 to undergo treatment over three days to have a robotic right arm wired-up to his nervous system.
Medics in Vienna carried out an intricate six-hour operation to re-wire a mass of tiny nerves so signals from his brain could drive his motorised arm.
Today Andrew said: “It’s fantastic to hear this is now happening in the North East.
“Any time of work that will help people who have been injured can only be welcomed.
“I am now used to my prosthetic and wear it as often as I possibly can.”
Bringing together some of the UK’s leading researchers in this field of rehabilitation research, the Newcastle University team will build fingertip sensors to give the prosthesis a realistic sense of touch, including pressure, shear and temperature.
In addition, a ‘virtual hand’ will provide information on the sense of the hand’s position and movement, known as ‘proprioception’.
Finally, the system will translate the signals to a form the brain understands and stimulate the nervous system to help the user control the hand.
Building this level of feedback into prosthetic devices will enable much higher levels of function for people who have lost their limbs than is currently available.
Dr Rory O’Connor, senior lecturer in Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Leeds which is involved in the project, said: “We are seeing many more active young people who are surviving severe injuries that result in them losing one or more limbs and requiring a prosthesis,”
“The current designs are like a plug and socket. The socket fits over the end of the limb and picks up signals from the muscles. The prosthesis fits onto this and by learning to flex certain muscles the patient can work the hand.
“The drawback is that for many patients – particularly survivors of trauma – the muscle ends are too damaged to be able to use the limb.
“What patients tell us is they want something that is more intuitive and more closely replicates the natural movement and feel of a real hand and that is what we hope to achieve through this project.”