Human-centered Electric Prosthetic (HELP) Hand

Through a partnership with Indian non-profit Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti, we designed a functional, robust, and and low cost electrically powered prosthetic hand that communicates with unilateral, transradial, urban Indian amputees through a biointerface. The device uses compliant tendon actuation, a small linear servo, and a wearable garment outfitted with flex sensors to produce a device that, once placed inside a prosthetic glove, is anthropomorphic in both look and feel. The prosthesis was developed such that future groups can design for manufacturing and distribution in India

The implications of embodiment for behavior and cognition: animal and robotic case studies

In this paper, we will argue that if we want to understand the function of the brain (or the control in the case of robots), we must understand how the brain is embedded into the physical system, and how the organism interacts with the real world. While embodiment has often been used in its trivial meaning, i.e. 'intelligence requires a body', the concept has deeper and more important implications, concerned with the relation between physical and information (neural, control) processes. A number of case studies are presented to illustrate the concept. These involve animals and robots and are concentrated around locomotion, grasping, and visual perception. A theoretical scheme that can be used to embed the diverse case studies will be presented. Finally, we will establish a link between the low-level sensory-motor processes and cognition. We will present an embodied view on categorization, and propose the concepts of 'body schema' and 'forward models' as a natural extension of the embodied approach toward first representations.Comment: Book chapter in W. Tschacher & C. Bergomi, ed., 'The Implications of Embodiment: Cognition and Communication', Exeter: Imprint Academic, pp. 31-5

Under and Beyond (the Skin): Artistic Process, Trauma and Embodiment in Image-Making

This paper examines bodily presence and absence, points of connectivity, and negotiates the terrain of the body through two distinct projects. Engaging in a drawing-centered practice I consider embodiment through two projects (Under the Skin and Beyond the Skin), forming a dyad through which to negotiate and illuminate various bodily expressions and representations. Throughout a lived existence, the body undergoes various transformations and adaptations; its ongoing mutation requires a continuous realignment and re-examination. A phenomenological approach acknowledges that an embodied experience is one which is physically aware and shapes our understanding of the world. Trauma, in varying degrees, forces the body to transform and adapt, potentially resulting in a different embodied perspective. Under the Skin takes up a study of embodiment through trauma and the body in pain. Beyond the Skin engages the prosthesis from an artistic perspective, exploring the capacity for altering the figuration of the body, which in turn informs my artistic praxis. Engaging works by artists Rebecca Horn and Matthew Barney, my intention is to develop a context for my own practice and an expansive understanding of prosthetic terminology and the presence of a prosthetic metaphor in artistic practices. As a creative endeavour the refiguration of prosthetic terminology has the potential to enhance the cultural experience of loss, trauma and adversity, allowing an exploration of the body as adaptable and expandable.Prosthetic

Surviving to thrive in complexity: a mixed method evaluation of military rehabilitation post lower limb amputation

This cohort of combat casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan should not have survived; but they did. Their survival should now be defined by their disability; yet it is not. Using a mixed method research approach underpinned by complexity science and social theory, this study critically examines military rehabilitation post lower limb amputation and key components required to manage their complex needs. Structured around an adapted MRC evaluation framework for complex interventions, perspectives of clinicians, clinical managers and veterans have been captured and verified using the Nominal Group Technique, interviews, and veteran outcome data (ADVANCE). Clinicians and clinical managers cite the importance of a highly collaborative interdisciplinary team approach where a culture of innovation, creativity, trust, and interdependence is nurtured by leaders. Conversely, the multidisciplinary team structure led to feelings of distrust, inadequacy, isolation, and disempowerment to adapt their circumstance. Veterans highlight the prosthetic limb as a powerful symbol of autonomy and group membership; social bonds with peers, family and trusted clinicians, and the intensive goal centred, functionally based, rehabilitation process are also prized. These components support veterans to acquire the skills needed to feel connected with others and act autonomously – verified in the literature as extrinsic enablers of human thriving. The ADVANCE cohort presented with a high severity of injury, yet remarkably no psychological or social decline when compared to uninjured controls. However, psychosocial outcomes did not depend on prosthetic mobility as previous research has shown. Therefore, both qualitative and quantitative data, point to a social dynamic supporting clinicians and patients to achieve their intrinsic motivational needs – to feel connected, competent, autonomous, and thereby, to thrive. Rehabilitation programmes planned around the proposed model of human thriving should promote high levels of social, psychological, and physical recovery. Future research is suggested on factors impeding thriving, mental health, socket comfort and medication.Open Acces

Prosthetic Body Parts in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture

This open access book investigates imaginaries of artificial limbs, eyes, hair, and teeth in British and American literary and cultural sources from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Prosthetic Body Parts in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture shows how depictions of prostheses complicated the contemporary bodily status quo, which increasingly demanded an appearance of physical wholeness. Revealing how representations of the prostheticized body were inflected significantly by factors such as social class, gender, and age, Prosthetic Body Parts in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture argues that nineteenth-century prosthesis narratives, though presented in a predominantly ableist and sometimes disablist manner, challenged the dominance of physical completeness as they questioned the logic of prostheticization or presented non-normative subjects in threateningly powerful ways. Considering texts by authors including Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, and Arthur Conan Doyle alongside various cultural, medical, and commercial materials, this book provides an important reappraisal of historical attitudes to not only prostheses but also concepts of physical normalcy and difference

An experimental analysis of laser machining for dental implants

In the recent years, the scientific progress in both technological and medical sectors has led to an evolution of materials and fabrication techniques used for dental prosthetics. This paper proposes laser subtractive process to manufacture dental implants and explores the behavior of a CO2 laser beam effects on biocompatible materials, namely zirconia and PMMA. The aims of the experiments are the study of CO2 laser beam effects on biocompatible materials and the creation of a mathematical model to relate the process parameters with groove geometry and surface finish

The ethics of educational healthcare placements in low and middle income countries : first do no harm?

This book examines the current state of elective placements of medical undergraduate students in developing countries and their impact on health care education at home. Drawing from a recent case study of volunteer deployment in Uganda, the authors provide an in-depth evaluation of the impacts on the students themselves and the learning outcomes associated with placements in low resource settings, as well as the impacts that these forms of student mobility have on the host settings. In addition to reviewing the existing literature on elective placements, the authors outline a potential model for the future development of ethical elective placements. As the book concurs with an increasing international demand for elective placements, it will be of immediate interest to universities, intermediary organizations, students as consumers, and hosting organisations in low-resource settings

Integrating Constrained Experiments in Long-term Human-Robot Interaction using Task– and Scenario–based Prototyping

© 2015 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis© Dag Sverre Syrdal, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Kheng Lee Koay, and Wan Ching Ho. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted. Permission is granted subject to the terms of the License under which the work was published. Please check the License conditions for the work which you wish to reuse. Full and appropriate attribution must be given. This permission does not cover any third party copyrighted material which may appear in the work requested.In order to investigate how the use of robots may impact everyday tasks, 12 participants interacted with a University of Hertfordshire Sunflower robot over a period of 8 weeks in the university’s Robot House.. Participants performed two constrained tasks, one physical and one cognitive , 4 times over this period. Participant responses were recorded using a variety of measures including the System Usability Scale and the NASA Task Load Index . The use of the robot had an impact on the experienced workload of the participants differently for the two tasks, and this effect changed over time. In the physical task, there was evidence of adaptation to the robot’s behaviour. For the cognitive task, the use of the robot was experienced as more frustrating in the later weeks.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio