Prostheses have been around for thousands of years, found in many cultures and in many different shapes and materials. One of the earliest recorded prosthesis is a 3000-year-old toe made of wood and leather in Cairo (image below and left). The variety of prostheses has never ceased to intrigued me. Although I was not very interested in real life prostheses as a little girl, the ones I saw in movies, anime, and video games always astounded me. As I began to learn how things worked in our world, I started to question how the artificial limbs in all the fiction I have been watching all my life functioned, like the Automail in the series Full Metal Alchemist (image below and right).
During my Senior research project, I will have the honor of working with esteemed Stephen Helms Tillery and his amazing associates in the SMoRG lab (SensoriMotor Research Group), pioneers of the realm of volitional prosthetics. In my time working in this facility, I will learn how the SMorG Lab was able to control a virtual prosthetic directly through the brain, in addition to how our own natural hands work. Afterwards, I will be exploring the relation between the mechanics used to control a natural hand and the cortical control of the neuroprosthetic hand using the 3D model. And in the end, I will be comparing the natural and current artificial neuro-electronic interfaces and how each can be applied to the creation of a neuro-electronic hybrid system.
I hope you enjoyed reading my brief introduction! I will be posting my progress on a regular basis, and I hope you accompany me on this journey. Feel free to subscribe, and remember to appreciate you own biological members. See you soon!
You're doing something about prosthetics?? Lucky!! I'm so jealous. Sounds like fun! Love the FMA reference ;)
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