“Something Beautiful”: Amputees Feel Temperature with Bionic Device

Image credit: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

A new bionic device has helped amputee patients to feel hot and cold temperatures directly in their phantom limb.

Developed by researchers from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the innovative MiniTouch technology could well pave the way for integration into new, non-invasive wearable prosthetics and other devices.

Clinical trials for the MiniTouch saw thermal electrodes placed on the skin of a patient’s residual arm, together with sensors applied to a finger on a prosthetic hand. The sensors could provide feedback on the temperature of various objects, and send that data to the electrode to replicate the sensations felt by the prosthetic.

In total, 17 of the 27 participating amputee patients, including Italian woman Francesca Rossi, reported feeling the temperature of the handled objects within their phantom limb.

“When I touch the stump with my hand, I feel tingling in my missing hand, my phantom hand. But feeling the temperature variation is a different thing, something important… something beautiful,” Rossi told EPFL News.

“Temperature feedback is a nice sensation because you feel the limb, the phantom limb, entirely. It does not feel phantom anymore because your limb is back.”

Patients also reported being able to differentiate between object materials including glass, plastic, copper and human body heat, based on its temperature.

“For the first time, after many years of research in my laboratory showing that touch and position information can be successfully delivered, we envisage the possibility of restoring all of the rich sensations that one’s natural hand can provide,” said study co-lead researcher, Dr Silvestro Micera in a statement.

The findings were recently published in Science.

Check out this video to see the MiniTouch in action, or visit the EPFL website for further information.