Week 7

Hello World!

So, last week was quite eye-opening and indicated a shift. Change is good, and in this case, it worked out well, I was able to use the prosthetic and I obtained data!

I realized that I may not have explained it that well, so as a quick summary of the new methodology for what I did, I began with my hand and the prosthetic device. I started out with three objects, a box, a cylinder, a baseball, and a roll of tape, all seen below.

Most everyday objects that one would encounter,
along with a baseball for spring training 

Then Dr. Fu and I attached motion trackers to my hand, one on each finger and one on my palm. Then with a motion tracking software, I used my hand grasped the objects, lifting them up briefly, before placing them back down. This was to see and obtain data as to how I naturally approached the object with my hand. As a test,  I used the hand, and just moved it around with motion sensors to make sure the sensors around me could pick up all of the trackers.

I then had a prosthetic hand attached to me. The Softhand pro device is actually quite heavy, and the one I used also had a silicone, soft rubber cover on it. I used it in this elaborate setup where it was attached to a rig made of pvc pipe and a stand, with the same module that it would use to attach to an amputee. It was then secured to me with some velcro. In the picture below, the hand has the motion trackers taped on, and it is attached to my hand. You can not see it, but there are two surface EMG sensors that are attached to my forearm. The white thing that I am holding onto is not a joystick, it is just something to hold onto, and when I move my wrist, I can manipulate the prosthetic.

Then I used the prosthetic and lifted the objects, and obtained the motion data for the different objects, doing three trials for each object, for both my hand and the prosthetic. 

This was also a valuable experience because I learned how hard it is to use the prosthetic. Sometimes the prosthetic does not register your EMG's so it is just a deadweight dragging down your arm. For me, the biggest problem was picking up things, like I played around with it, making my own small game of jenga with objects around the lab, and it was really hard to use. I think picking up the roll of tape was the most frustrating thing every, because, every time I grabbed for it, it slipped through the palm of the hand. 

Well, so that was the experimentation in my project. I used the prosthetic, and I got some real experience with the short comings of the prosthetic device. I mean, I only spent a couple hours with it, and to imagine Amputees look to their prosthetics with hope, and they use it for the rest of their lives, that is a great feat of strength. Thank you for reading. I have a lot more footage of my trials, but most of that is under wraps because it will go into my final project presentation. Don't forget to leave any comments below and share your thoughts on this week. See you all next week!