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| courtesy of: École Polytechnique Fédérake de Lausanne |
Credentials
Silvestro Micera received an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering form the University of Pisa and went on the get a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering. He has been an assistant professor at the Sculoa Superiore SantAnna and now is the head of the Neural Engineering group. The primary focus of the research group is to look into the neural integration of prosthetic limbs to the body.
Breakthrough
The Neural Research team has recently (within weeks) made a significant breakthrough in their quest for better prosthetics. They have built an artificial fingertip with the ability to sense not only pressure but texture. By implanting electrical leads from the finger into the nervous system of the amputee he or she has the ability to have a sense of touch form this device. For amputee patients the leads must be surgically implanted but the device can be tested on non-amputee patients by inserting needles into the patients arm.
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| courtesy of: Sculoa Superiore SantAnna |
Implications
This breakthrough opens up a bright new future for amputees and has a wide range of uses outside of prosthetics. The initial use for this device is simple, amputees with a prosthetic hand or foot will now have the ability to have a sense of touch once again. This technology can be used by doctors in the future for remote surgeries and by the military for better human integration into robots. It is hard to say what all can be achieved now with this breakthrough but it is clearly a step towards robot integrated life on earth.
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