Week 3: Software Communication and Prosthetic Reactions

Hello World!

Week 3 was off the a fantastic start. I took President’s day off, and spent the rest of my week reading papers and working to get MATLAB to communicate with the Myo Armband.

I had a lot to get through I had a wrapper program to use MATLAB with the Myo Armband. Basically, after getting the software to get my computer to recognize the Myo Armband, I was able to do the stuff I mentioned last week. I was able to use it as a mouse for my computer, and got rid of stress with Fruit Ninja, but for my project, I was going nowhere. In order to get the data from my simulations, I needed to get the MuJoCo Haptix software to communicate with MATLAB and the Armband.

This process was kind of extensive, and involved a couple complicated steps. Essentially I had to get it to the point where, using MATLAB, I could program the simulation in the Haptix software with various objects. Then, using the Myo Armband and some sensors, I would be lifting the objects in the simulation, and I could get my program to record the raw EMG data. Then I will be analyzing the EMG data that I obtain. Four days and a couple hours later, I think it works...

As another goal of this project, I wanted to analyze the social and psychological implications as a result of prosthetics throughout history. Psychologically, losing a limb takes a huge toll, but the entire process of having and using a prosthetic is a journey in and of itself. In Dr. John C. Racy’s “Psychological Adaptation to Amputation” paper, he identifies that age, personality, lifestyle, and an emotional support are the most important factors in the way a person adjusts to their life with an amputation and a prosthetic. Personally, what I think is the most important is an emotional support system. You need someone who can be flexible and help you out with any problems, and you need someone to support you as you adapt to using the prosthetic. For some this transition can be really hard, because you feel like you have lost something, and you need to grow to accept the situation that you are in. Overall, this paper provided me with a new insightful outlook on people with prosthetics, and what they have gone through. I have linked it below, so feel free to read it if you are interested and get the opportunity.

Something that continuously comes up when reading papers of the history and development of prosthetics is cosmetic appearance. Many prosthetics managed to balance appearance with functionality, but today, most prosthetics are designed to look exactly like the original, even having the same skin tone as the recipient. When designing the Soft Hand Pro device, the device that I am looking at, designers have crafted a "sleeve" type covering that is the color of skin. As a question, I want to know what your reactions would be to different appearances of the same prosthetic device, kind of as a small scale survey to identify any possible stigmas regarding prosthetics’ appearance.

Thank you all for making me the blog of the week! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them below. I will be taking the next week off for my spring break, but I will continue working on the program and reading through papers. Don't Forget to Answer the survey down below!

Google Forms: Prosthetics

Psychological Adaptation to Amputation

See You Later!

Week 2: The Myo Armband

Hello World!

Week 2 was building up from the basement. I practiced a bit more with MATLAB. I needed to make sure I understood the programming, so I also went over some previous papers that used MATLAB for data analysis. The week was going by well, I was working on the foundation and then I was given this thing:

My initial reaction was "What is this? What does this have to do with my project? and Why?" 

Turns out it is really important for my project. It is called a Myo Armband, and it is literally the future. At its core, this device is a gesture control accessory. So for your computer, you can install it and use it as a mouse, you can use it to stop a video, you can use it to play Fruit Ninja(which is really fun), and you can even use it to control a drone. For those of you who have seen Iron Man, you know how he interacts with the holograms using his hands, yeah, this is a step towards that. That could be a reality in the next few years using this technology. I have included gifs of some of what it can do below, but the main point is that it is really cool!

So, I got this device and I realized that the way this armband works is really important for my project. Like most of you learned in biology, the muscles that control your hand and finger movement are actually in your forearm. So what this armband does is that it uses 8 sensors and records EMG data. What is EMG you ask? I will explain...

Electromyography, abbreviated as EMG, is the recording of muscle movement as a motor response. It measures the electrical response to the motor neuron signal sent to the muscles in your body. EMG is often used to determine muscle health and to identify nerve damage, carpal tunnel, Lou Gehrig's disease and pinched nerves. 

An Electromyogram,
plotted as Voltage over Time 

The Arm band uses the EMG's in your forearms that correspond to movements of your fingers. It is able to record the EMG data in an electromyogram, that kind of looks like a polygraph test. What does it have to do with my project? It is literally one of the main pillars for my project. Prosthetics record EMG's as a way to communicate with your mind. So the device that I will be using, the Softhand Pro, has an electrode to communicate with EMG's as to whether the hand should open or close. The use of EMG's with prosthetics actually classifies a division of prosthetics known as Myoprosthetics. 

Although this device was created as a consumer electronic, it works as an EMG recording device for my project. This week I worked with this and got it to communicate with MATLAB. This means that when I begin the simulations, I can record the EMG's and take those into account as well.

I hope I explained this clearly. If you have any questions, feel free to comment down below. My week was essentially just playing around with this armband device. Oh, also here are gifs, of what the armband can do.

 See you all next week!

Week 1

Hello World!

Week 1 worked to consolidate a solid base for the building that is this project. To begin with, I attended a great Rehabilitation Robotics Workshop, and learned about the research that is going on at ASU’s School of Biological and Health sciences. There were amazing presentations and posters. One that was really interesting was a gait-support walking exoskeleton for stroke patients who were at risk of muscle atrophy in their legs. Essentially, gait-training is physical therapy for people with prosthetic legs, where they learn how to use them, and how to properly support themselves with their new prosthetic. I also began going through the history of prosthetics and looked through some other papers. I wanted to learn more about prosthetics and so I decided to start reading about the history of prosthetics in general.

For my project, I hoped to analyze the forces involved with the simple action of grasping something, and then compare the data from a real hand to the prosthetic to see how well the prosthetic replicated this action. I realized that I could not only do this with a real prosthetic hand, but that I could also use a simulation software called MuJoCo Haptix. I realized that all of the tests that I wanted to do were centered around the prosthetic device at the lab, and that I could shadow one of the primary projects involving that device and incorporate that data into my project. So at the end of the day, I realized that I could use the simulation and the data from the other project to develop my conclusive outlook towards Prosthetic design. Yeah, a lot of realization, and yet I haven’t obtained nirvana.

For this simulation, I needed to find a way to get the software to record the data. Cue MATLAB!

Thanks to Mr. Peacher and Linear Algebra, I knew a little, but I needed to cement my MATLAB knowledge  and learn more. I basically binge-watched MATLAB tutorials, learned about using the Haptix software and read through previous research that utilized the Haptix software. Although this process brought back memories of me studying for the Euro AP, it ultimately helped. I still have a long ways to go, and this studying will probably go into next week, but in the long run, this is going to help when I am analyzing the data that I collect.

Other than that, highlights of my week include Melissa Mccarthy's amazing skit as Sean Spicer on SNL, and the Iron Fist trailer, that was cool.

That’s A Wrap! Thank you!