When a person loses a limb, the most importanthis dream is to feel the hand or foot again. And not just to feel, but to carry out with a limb all movements available before injury or illness: take a cup, lace up shoes, walk with support on both legs. The bionic prosthesis, or a complex device that catches nerve impulses, allows to return the lost opportunities.
How did the smart dentures come about?
Прототип «живых» протезов придумали и описали fiction writers It was in their works that mechanical hands, better than living organs, replaced lost hands, legs, eyes, and hearts in battles. The most famous example is the Terminator Cameron, who took only appearance from a person.
Few people know that the prototype of modern prosthesesIt dates back to the 19th century, when a metal ball was inserted into the wooden leg to make the lower part movable. But in the 20th century, these primitive devices were replaced by a bionic prosthesis created at the junction of several sciences: medicine, engineering, bionics, and electronics.
Scientists from different countries challenge the primacy of thisquestion, but the facts are that the first operating bionic prosthetic arm was presented at the orthopedic exhibition in the German city of Leipzig in 2010. For several years that have passed since this event, a huge number of prosthetic hands, hands, feet, legs and even dog paws have been developed in the world.
What is bionics?
This is a whole science that studies wildlife andthe possibility of transferring the principles of the work of living beings in industrial analogues. Engineers peep ideas from nature and embody them in their devices and structures. In this sense, bionic prostheses are just a drop in the ocean. So, the well-known velcro fasteners just copy the way of movement of the burdock seeds. Suckers are borrowed from leeches. When constructing submarines, they took an example of an earthworm - all of its “compartments” are autonomous. The incredibly durable metal openwork of the Ostankino and Eiffel Towers is a multiply enlarged replica of human tubular bone. Weave metal, which all so admire - a copy of the structure of bone tissue, combining strength and flexibility.
Даже многоэтажный дом, в котором одновременно live such different families, written off from the honeycomb. The idea of life of different people in the "cells" under the same roof with general communications copies the way of life of a bee family.
Bionic incarnations are found in many objects around us: car tires, airplanes, surveillance cameras, watercraft, and the most common articulated joints.
How does the simplest bionic prosthesis work?
After injury or in the course of the disease limbamputated. The remaining stump consists of a variety of tissues: skin, muscles, bones, blood vessels, and nerves. The surgeon during the operation removes the preserved motor nerve to the remaining large muscle. After healing of the wound, the nerve can transmit a motor signal. This signal is sensed by the sensor mounted on the prosthesis. In the process of perception of the nerve impulse involved a complex computer program.
Therefore, a bionic prosthesis can only performthose actions that are registered in this program: take a spoon, fork or ball, press a key and the like. Compared to the lack of a limb, the possibility of even a limited number of movements is a huge progress. However, even the best and most perfect bionic prostheses cannot yet perform all those fine and precise movements that a living limb is capable of.
How does the nerve impulse pass from the brain to the prosthesis?
To understand how bionic prostheses work, you need to recall the normal human physiology.
Движения, которые мы совершаем многократно в during the day are called automatic. Lifting, going to the toilet, washing, brushing your teeth, dressing - all this does not cause us any thoughts. The body does everything it needs as if by itself. But in fact, the beginning of any movement is a thought. That is, at first we think: you need to brush your teeth, make coffee, get dressed. The brain sends signals to the muscles that are involved in this movement. The muscle can contract or relax only at the signal of the brain. But the process takes place so quickly and smoothly that we do not have time to realize what is happening. In the case of a prosthesis, everything is more complicated: at first, the signal of movement is read by an electrode located next to the nerve that is pulled out to the muscle, and then sent to the processor inside the prosthesis. This process is also quite fast, but the speed of action is still inferior to a living limb.
Artificial human "parts"
Since the first bionic was introducedprosthesis, science has gone far ahead. If the first models were bulky, required switches and could perform only the simplest movements, then modern designs can hardly be called prostheses. These are elegant engineering products, as if descended from the screen of futuristic films.
The prosthesis is absolutely similar to a healthy hand, they canwrite, hold cutlery, car steering wheel or chicken egg. For perfect movements, one’s own tissue is sometimes used from other parts of the body - from the legs, for example.
Ideas from the future
Engineers and scientists in their fantasies are unstoppable.So, scientists were even able to "go around" the damaged retina, transmitting the image of the surrounding directly to the optic nerve. A person who has become blind as a result of an injury, while preserving the optic nerve, can count on seeing his own faces again or a beautiful sunrise.
Devices that improve brain function have already appeared. So, with trembling paralysis or Parkinson's disease can be dealt with using an implanted electrode.
People who become motionless due to paralysisimplant electrodes directly into the brain so that they can control artificial arms and legs. For a person who is completely dependent on others, the possibility of self-service is an unspeakable joy.
The issue of implantable chips under the skin that can replace keys, a bank card and an identity card is discussed.
And what about us?
The most famous enterprise producingBionic prostheses in Russia are the Moscow prosthetic rehabilitation center. Here, prostheses from modules are assembled, products from Germany, Iceland and Russia are used.
The prosthesis of each person has individualfeatures. This is the level of amputation, and weight, and height, and occupation, especially gait and small movements, age. Many self-learning modules are used. Not only does the person adapt to the prosthesis, but the prosthesis also adapts to the person. A self-learning module, equipped with built-in artificial intelligence, remembers the features of the gait and route of movement. The module "teaches" not only the width of the step and the load on the limb, but also remembers the number and height of steps, potholes, and pits along the way. Modules copy the actions of the brain preparing the step or other movement.
How much does a live prosthesis cost?
The cost of bionic prosthetics is still highand can reach in difficult cases millions of rubles. However, a return to a full life is difficult to evaluate in material terms. In fact, the installation of bionic prostheses is the only way for a disabled person to return to normal life: to build and implement plans, support a family, and achieve career heights.
The most important thing is to return to the communityhealthy, self-reliant people. People with "live" prostheses continue to lead a familiar lifestyle, dance and even receive sports awards. That is, the prosthesis becomes a part of a person so that it is difficult to distinguish the actions of living muscles from their bionic counterparts.
Prosthetics: stages of development
Compared to a conventional bionic prosthesis,a real breakthrough. More recently, a person who lost a hand could count on only two possibilities: a skin flap was formed between the ulna and radius, so that a person could capture large objects, or a hook was attached to the cult. Both that, and another was inconvenient and unaesthetic. Today, even the formation of a stump for a future prosthesis begins in the operating room. From the first days of the postoperative period, a prosthetist works with the victim, helping to choose the best combination of parts. The stump is formed and trained, and parts of the future prosthesis are maximally adapted to the remaining possibilities. A delicate silicone cuff with integrated chips comes in contact with the skin. Scuffs from modern prostheses do not happen. The program for each product is developed individually, depending on what the person is doing. The task is the maximum restoration of the function.
Help for the disabled
A person who has lost a limb, is obligatoryorder undergoes medical and social examination. Along with the establishment of a disability group, a social rehabilitation program is being developed for everyone. Rehabilitation involves the use primarily of technical means that contribute to the return of a person to work. All bionic limb prostheses are included in the mandatory list of such technical equipment. A person has a choice: within the framework of a rehabilitation program, to receive a finished product or to purchase it yourself with the subsequent receipt of monetary compensation. The amount of compensation is calculated based on the average cost of similar prosthetic products.
What are the developers working on?
Modern bionic hand prostheses excellentperform subtle movements, but a person does not receive from them those sensations to which he is accustomed. So, a prosthesis can stroke a person’s hair, but you can’t feel the warmth of the scalp and the softness of the hair. Scientists are now engaged in the elimination of this particular flaw. Specialists have already learned how to merge bones with titanium, and to connect motion and sense sensors directly to the living nerve. So, the bionic arm completely replaces the living one, and the person receives tactile sensations, which he has been deprived of for many years. The direct connection of nerves and muscles with a technical device greatly increases the speed of movement, bringing it closer to the natural.
What parts does a bionic leg consist of?
A modern bionic prosthetic leg includes several essential elements, such as:
- silicone cuff with integrated sensors;
- support - a titanium rod shaped like a drumstick;
- hinged module with micromotors and a processor;
- artificial intelligence unit that processes all incoming signals.
The latest models of prostheses by leading Germancompanies have a special coating, very similar to the skin. Synthetic skin has a dual purpose: protects the parts of the prosthesis from moisture and performs a cosmetic function. You can not remove the coated prosthesis, take a shower with it and walk through the puddles.
A bit of fantasy
Today, several live on the same planet with us.a person having 2 or even 3 bionic prostheses simultaneously. Synthetic leather invented to change stiffness. Exoskeletons were invented to help paralyzed people walk. Products controlled by the power of thought are being developed. Experiments are conducted on growing nerves in microchannels. Theoretically, the day is near when it will be possible to grow a nerve of the desired length. Scientists are trying to blur the line between wildlife and technology. The number of movements performed by bionic prostheses is constantly increasing, and their complexity is also increasing.
All this gives great hope that a person will become stronger than the disease.
Limb prosthetics becomes routinea procedure that returns a person to the usual course. Perhaps the day will come when any part of the human body can be replaced by an artificial one. At least I really want to believe in it.
