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Post by snowyh on Jul 23, 2020 18:15:58 GMT -7
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Post by leftyeric on Jul 24, 2020 9:10:06 GMT -7
Hi, Helen, I like watching these cool technologies develop. I know they won't be for me, but I can see something like this being useful for other people. I don't have any statistics on it, but my impression is that for people missing one leg (or one foot), there is high usage of prosthetics, whereas for people missing one arm (or one hand), prosthetic usage is much rarer. (It's a very different story for people missing TWO hands.) I was trying to come up with an explanation for a friend for the difference in one-hand vs one-leg prosthetic usage, and I came up with this: "If you are using your legs, 90% of the time it is to do one thing: walk. And, the difference between one-legged walking and two-legged walking is huge. So it's easier to design a leg prosthetic -- it's all about walking. And it's easy to get motivated to use a leg prosthetic -- you'll walk much easier. With your hands, you ae doing a million different things, no one thing for very long. And many of those things you can do well (or pretty well) with one hand. So, it's much harder to design a prosthetic to do many different things, and the amputee's motivation is less urgent, too." The Covvi hand definitely looks like a serious effort to address the "need to do lots of different things" issue. I know some arm amputees go a different route, having separate "hands" for different tasks. Holding a rake or shovel, vs holding a fork or tooth brush, or for fun: weight-lifting, bicycling or juggling, all different attachments. Roland spyder if you are reading this, I once met a guy with a special paint-ball gun attachment! Helen, for people with our particular profile, the issue of arm prosthetics is more of a civil engineering challenge even before you get to the mechanical or electrical engineering question. Hard to get a socket to fit your stump if you have no stump! |
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Post by snowyh on Jul 25, 2020 16:54:51 GMT -7
You're right, Eric! My very non-scientific observation is that, (for arm amps) the higher the level of amputation, the lower the use of prostheses. Advances in technology should focus on the hands because below-elbow amps are the most likely to even use a pros. As you noted, with our shared high-level amputation--no stump--the challenge of fitting a prosthesis becomes exponentially greater. But, even if the engineers came up with an ingenious method of attaching the pros to our stumpless bodies, the problems of comfort and utility remain. The larger the prosthetic, the heavier the pros will be; the more joints that need to be replaced (wrist, elbow, shoulder), the more technically complex and less user-friendly it will be.
The other category of arm amp most likely to have a functional prosthesis are likely the "newer" amputees who are still thinking like a 2-armed person. Those of us who've been around a while have learned how to do things using only one arm, and often find less value in a prosthesis. Having said that, I'm happy to have in the back of my closet a cosmetic shoulder cap, which comes in handy when I rarely need to wear certain clothing--for example, a suit jacket--or just want to have a more "balanced" look. However, as it's so uncomfortable to wear, I have a love/hate relationship with the thing.
Helen
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