The prosthetic arm feels the temperature
The bionic hand was taught to shock the owner for burns
Researchers from Nankai University have developed a prosthetic arm that can alert its owner about an object's temperature being too high with the help of weak electric shocks. This is reported by the portal 3dprint.com (Researchers Develop Temperature Sensitive Prosthetic Hand That Shocks Wearer When Objects are Hot).
As a basis, scientists took a plastic bionic arm, the details of which were printed on a 3D printer. When the hand grabs an object, the temperature sensors in the artificial palm transmit a signal to the control circuit. If the microcontroller built into the prosthesis believes that the object is too hot, then it unclenches its fingers, preventing it from taking the object, and shocks the carrier of the bionic hand. In this case, the force of the impact depends on the temperature of the object.
Modern prosthetic hands have recently been increasingly manufactured using 3D printing, which allows you to adjust the prosthesis to each patient individually.
Bionic arm with temperature sensors. Photograph: Lu Siyi et al. / Nankai University
At the same time, most of the plastic products obtained using 3D printing are really vulnerable to high temperatures. An object that is too hot can easily melt parts of the prosthesis, which will make it impossible to use it. It is assumed that the technology of the authors will help the owners both to save the bionic hand and not to get burned by a hot drink.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru11.06.2015