A Bionic Touch

An amazing bionic finger helped an amputee regained his sense of touch.

11:44 14 March 2016

A newly developed bionic finger has helped a 35-year-old amputee restore his sense of touch.

 

Dennis Sorensen lost his left arm in a fireworks accident 13 years ago. Using a bionic finger, which is surgically connected to the nerves in his upper arm, he was able to feel the difference between rough and smooth. He is the first in the world to recognise texture using a bionic fingertip connected to electrodes that were surgically implanted above his stump.

 

Mr Sorensen, from Denmark, said: "The stimulation felt almost like what I would feel with my hand.

"I still feel my missing hand - it's always clenched in a fist.

 

"I felt the texture sensations at the tip of the index finger of my phantom hand."

 

Professor Calogero Oddo of the BioRobotics Institute at Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Italy, said: "This study merges fundamental sciences and applied engineering.

 

"It provides additional evidence research in neuro-prosthetics can contribute to the neuroscience debate - specifically about the neuronal mechanisms of the human sense of touch.

 

"It will also be translated to other applications such as artificial touch in robotics for surgery, rescue and manufacturing."