Unit 1 Assignment 1

Tremaine Robinson ITGM 705 Prof. Gregory Johnson Exercise 1 Just recently my father has become an amputee. He had to get his left index and middle fingers removed because the doctors found cancer in what my father thought was just a sore that was taking for ever to heal. I felt very bad for my father and his dilemma and it got me thinking about developing a prosthetic device to replace his missing fingers. Sure, I’m no mechanical or technical genius but it’s the thought that counts. The idea consists of two mechanical appendages (left index and middle fingers) that would be connected to a fitted sleeve that covers the hand and lower wrist. On the wrist area there will be a touch screen interface monitoring device that will allow the patient to view battery life and view the overall status of the prosthetic fingers. This monitoring device will also store information from day to day on the types of activities that are performed by the user so that it can adapt to be of better use to the patient.

Experts on the topic of amputation say that even when people lose a limb or limbs, the nerve endings still deliver electrical signals. Patients who have lost limbs mention that they can still feel the amputated limbs as if they were never amputated. This is what doctors call the phantom limb. There are prosthetic limbs out there in development that can read those electrical signals emanating from those nerve endings of a previously amputated limb.

That same technology can be implemented to the prosthetics that I have in mind. The fact that this product will be able to store data about its user is great because a person such as my father who uses his hands a lot as an electrician will rely on the device to remember the subtle hand movements, the different grip pressures, and the amount of usage for battery life efficiency.

There aren’t a lot of prosthetic devices on the market that have a display screen that informs the user that the prosthetic may need repairs. I believe that the add-on of a screen can come in handy.