Introduction
In special cases, a person is exposed to losing one or more limbs. This may happen due to wars or terrorist operations, or he may be exposed to a traffic accident or a work injury... or perhaps due to practicing dangerous sports such as ice skating. The result in the end is the same, which is a person who has lost his arm or leg and is trying to live with what remains of his limbs, resisting the frustration he is exposed to whenever he tries to walk with one foot or use one hand in a job he used to do with both hands.
* The extent of the possibility of producing electronic prosthetic limbs similar to human limbs.
- Scientists say in this regard that this is not impossible if the necessary funding for research is available. Scientific research in the field of prosthetic devices still does not receive sufficient support. Although the manufacture of these devices requires the combined efforts of specialists in various fields such as mechanical and electronic engineers, as well as neurologists and brain doctors.
- Prosthetic legs are considered the most common prosthetic devices because about 95% of disability cases are due to the loss of the lower limbs, which made these legs a large market and a higher technological development. Some of them are now equipped with hydraulic hinges and control devices that deal with the weight of the injured person's body and move automatically to achieve balance while walking.
- But these devices suffer from defects that make them impractical. They are not completely comfortable and their heavy weight makes them slow to move, and they also cause pain in the thigh area where the device connects to the injured person's body.
- Finally, their shape is not good and the person who uses them while walking appears to be limping clearly.
- For this reason, the American Veterans Affairs Authority established a special center for this type of research at a cost of more than 7 million dollars.
- The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency also spent about 5 million dollars on two projects for prosthetic devices.
* The first project.
- A team of experts will produce an advanced and practical prosthetic hand within two years.
A picture of an artificial hand being developed to execute brain commands and connect to it via the nervous system*The second project.
- Within 4 years, an artificial hand will be developed that executes brain commands directly
and connects to it via the nervous system. It will also have the ability to read speed, angle and balance data during its movement. This is a technological leap in the field of electronic prosthetics.
*The beginnings of the emergence and development of alternative prosthetic devices.
- Before World War II, alternative prosthetic devices were
just metal parts that stick to the body.
- In the sixties of the last century, scientists in Russia discovered that there are devices that can be placed on the skin and sense nerve signals that are supposed to move the muscles. Then they were able to develop artificial limbs that operate on an electric battery and can contract or expand when they receive this signal.
- In the early eighties, scientific research conducted to treat victims of the Vietnam War resulted in the development of a microprocessor that could be used in prosthetic devices, which improved the type of movement performed by the device, increased its speed, and enabled movement at more angles. However, users of these devices still need to perform more than one complex movement. Simple tasks such as getting dressed or cleaning dishes may require high concentration, many movements, and a long time.
- Experts also say that the higher the amputation site, the more freedom of movement a person loses. Amputation of the foot above the knee is more harmful than amputation below the knee. The more joints and ligaments the amputated part contains, the less mobility the injured person has.
- Even with the use of current prosthetic devices, the injured person moves this foot or hand as if it were a mechanical children's toy or part of a robot.
Conclusion
We find that one of the most important challenges facing the development of prosthetic devices is the possibility of communicating with the central nervous system in the body of the injured person.
Although this part has been implemented with great success for the prosthetic electronic hand, although its cost is very high and only the rich can afford it, and with some hope that the cost of manufacturing it will be reduced in the near future, we will have made great strides in developing prosthetic devices.
- We still have the prosthetic devices for the foot, which clearly need double the effort of experts to develop them and make them interact with the nervous system of the human body as if it were a natural foot, although it is an electronic artificial foot.
تعليقات
إرسال تعليق