Cable control - cable options
Posted on March 5, 2010
As my current setup is being replaced by a new socket / cable installation I took the opportunity to investigate and review some current options. Cables are cool if they last long and if they offer precise control.
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Filed Under Cable control, Prosthesis | Leave a Comment
Reconstructing Three-Dimensional Hand Movements from Noninvasive Electroencephalographic Signals [science fiction / research]
Posted on March 4, 2010
Dudes, time to put on y’alls thinking hats. Those that will go on a train or tram don’t forget the aluminum foil hat ;)
Reconstructing Three-Dimensional Hand Movements from Noninvasive
Electroencephalographic Signals
Trent J. Bradberry,1 Rodolphe J. Gentili,2,3 and Jose´ L. Contreras-Vidal1,2,3
1 Fischell Department of Bioengineering,
2 Department of Kinesiology, and
3 Graduate Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
[text below]
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My liege, amist I bovveréd forsooth? [all about attitude;chill out]
Posted on February 25, 2010
How ever so completely irreverend and funny is this show! ”Can I be bothered”? Such an important attitude. Always correct (”my Liege”) but firm and not ready to compromise her unbothered attitude.
Transcript below….
Filed Under Attitude, Chill Out, Disability and the public, Discrimination, Health, Stigmatization | Leave a Comment
How to make a prosthetic socket [myth buster]
Posted on February 24, 2010
It has been alleged by proponents of osseointegration that prosthetic socket making was a black art that orthopedic superconglomerates used in a conspiracy to make amputees dependent of stump sockets (commonly looked down upon as ‘buckets’) and ultimately suppress and exploit amputees - whereas osseointegration (getting a bolt put in the stump) would free amputees of any such dependency.
We have seen the words ‘bucket sob’ to refer to sweat accumulated in sockets - all nice and sweet but that opens up a whole new domain of dialog. If such words are used then I’d call the comprehensive lifestyle restrictions of osseointegrated people ‘bolt fright’. Not wearing a normal weight prosthetic arm out of ‘bolt fright’? Not coming to the public swimming pool out of ‘bolt fright’? I mean, I do understand a little bit - with little children, old people and all of their incontinences, the water is not always super pristine…
Obviously, osseointegration - putting metal bolts into the bone stump(s) and have these stick out through the skin to attach a prosthesis to - makes you not at all ‘less dependent’. At best osseointegration may help shift your dependency to a zone where you (but not necessarily others) may hopefully feel more comfortable - but whether that will be the case depends on your individual comfort zones, your ability to comply with the upkeep and cleanliness, and other factors including luck. Osseointegration also has specific risks and costs - for example, one bolt to be put into an arm costs around ~ 80′000 US$. Furthermore, osseointegration will make certain things outright impossible (as a formerly soft stump end now will permanently have an edgy protruding metal and you can never softly touch anyone any longer) and it will make other things difficult (as infection and mechanical breakage may quickly cause complications of a more serious nature).
So this moment, the original assumption - that the orthopedic establishment is using sockets as black art to make amputees dependent - requires some in depth myth busting.
Actually, anyone can build sockets. How to make a good prosthetic socket is something anyone who builds model airplanes, anyone who can buy do-it-yourself goods and anyone who has some time can easily tinker with and do. Besides, any normal prosthetic technician will interestedly accept self-built constructions that you show them, and learn from them. In my experience they never looked down on or laughed at a self-built or modified solution but instead tried to understand distinct advantages and later maybe implement them. Also they will happily use better components if they know where to get them and what to do with them, any time.
No conspiracy from where I’m standing.
Sockets come at relatively expensive prices maybe, but no conspiracy. And comparing a 3′500 US$ socket against an 80′000$ bolt that associates with a myriad of risks and complications, my bet is that sockets feel great and have good stability if they are built from modern materials by people that know what they are doing.
How to make sockets? Here’s how.
Filed Under Artwork and Do It yourself Corner, Mechanical works, Prosthesis, Socket/liner | Leave a Comment
Artistic visions for prosthetic design XIV - Project Facade
Posted on February 24, 2010
The narrative, the wording of meaning, the definition of attitudes are very relevant requirements to later work of art, action or absence thereof. So what explanations are given visually or verbally is of great matter.
As far as I understood, the art project named ‘Project Facade‘ re-forms anatomical, pathological and surgical dismay of real world war I victims that are portrayed on the project’s website in order to visualize their history, their suffering as some type of ‘fashion narrative’. As I am both practically and theoretically interested in this subject, this caught my interest.
Realistic documentaries may be biased if not fictionalized already enough for my taste, yet these attempts to create clothes that tell stories are completely invented - yet, they seem to carry even more relevant or truthful aspects about the uncharted territories of the relationship between two completely different species - seemingly healthy humans, and apparently disabled humans.
Copyright 2005 Paddy Hartley.
Filed Under Artwork and Do It yourself Corner, Red Hand Series / Technical Design Series, Sleeves, Support, Textiles and patterns | Leave a Comment
Mechanically intelligent prosthetic design - microprocessor-controlled artificial foot [U MICH]
Posted on February 19, 2010
This artificial foot uses a small battery to fuel a microprocessor controller - but the main energy is stored and then released by walking. This shows that despite all gadgetry being twiddled with in academic research, great mechanically intelligent prosthetic design still can be found.
Links:
- Collins, Steven H. AND Kuo, Arthur D., Recycling Energy to Restore Impaired Ankle Function during Human Walking, in: PLoS ONE, volume 5, number 2, pages e9307, 2010 [research paper]
- University of Michigan News Service
(C) Copyright University of Michigan
For prosthetic hands this could indicate that
- taking advantage of best controls of both body powered and electronically coordinated designs may be better than just using either / or,
- and there are engineers that are up for it after all.
Filed Under Prosthesis, Prototype development, Science fiction | Leave a Comment
Ben Sidran - You Can’t Judge A Book Live [chill out]
Posted on February 15, 2010
This song has an almost political dimension about it. For disability rights activists, that is. Besides it’s great jazz, which is why I love Ben Sidran’s music.
Filed Under Chill Out, Health | Leave a Comment
Learning from industry and industrial design for prosthetic design
Posted on February 13, 2010
I have been saying and living (!) all along that a detailed functional analysis necessarily precedes successful prosthetic design.
It also precedes successful design anywhere else. Apple recently revealed the iPad. But listen to how Steve Jobs explains what they did: they analysed what was wrong with existing solutions and then designed and built their new device to specifically fill that niche. And so those of you that kept trucking by extending the old prosthetic design metaphor (build it from cheap crap, make it look neat and sell it for millions to non-disabled company or insurance representatives): go and study and do a detailed functional analysis first. The deeper and more detailed, the more extensive and unforgiving, the better.
But now let us see what Steve Jobs can teach us about that:
Obviously Steve gets it wrong soon with his iPad evangelizing - my netbook is absolutely great, slow, light, cheap and has a very long battery life, it runs PC software which in fact is great - so it does exactly what I want it to do. No way an iPad would be of help. Besides, Steve and his friends at Apple still violate Telecommunications Act Section 255 so they should have plenty to do until they fixed that mess. But Steve’s means to arrive at that conclusion - by seeing what is not good about existing parts - is the way to do it. That is where I think he completely nailed it.
How do we apply that to prosthetic arms that allow for gripping and holding items, most notably the ones operated by myoelectric switches or cable control?
