An Empirical Evaluation of Stiffness Perception Using a Shoulder-Worn Haptic Interface

Many patients with an upper-limb deficiency choose not to wear their prosthetic devices due to a multitude of reasons, including physical discomfort and unintuitive, cognitively demanding control methods. A new haptic interface was developed combining the desirable control characteristics of body-powered control prostheses with the comfort of an...

Sensitivity and control of a pneumatic force transducer: A proof of principle

Current upper-limb prostheses are often rejected as a result of high activation forces that are needed for control. Another reason for rejection is the absence of appropriate proprioceptive feedback. In this study, a pneumatic control system was designed that decreased the activation forces and where proprioceptive feedback was provided. The...

The Virtual Rubber Hand Illusion: Moving in the Right Direction?

The Rubber Hand Illusion is an illusion in which<br/>visual cues of stimulation on a fake hand are combined with<br/>synchronous tactile cues on a participant’s hand, which can<br/>induce a sense of bodily ownership of the fake hand. This<br/>technique does not facilitate synchronous movement of the<br/>hands, and asynchronous stimulation or...

Feedback in voluntary closing arm prostheses: Investigation of optimal force feedback in shoulder controlled arm prosthesis operation

High rejection rates indicate that prosthetic users are not satisfied with the performance of their arm prostheses. In theory, one of the advantages of shoulder controlled prosthesis, compared to myo-electric prostheses, is that the user gets direct proprioceptive feedback about opening width and pinch force of his prosthetic hand. However,...