For many years those who had suffered a devastating injury or were born with a disability had few options if they were amputees and found themselves in need of a limb. Most of the options available were very crudely constructed, difficult to use and not easily adaptable for many people, causing a large portion of people with these issues to simply choose nothing at all or spend their lives in a wheelchair. Today, times have changed drastically, particularly in the last twenty-five years, where technology has helped to create robotic prosthetics that have changed the way to live and has created endless possibilities where none may have existed before.
Materials That Have Changed Prosthetics
As time has progressed and technology has improved, the options available to those in need of prosthetics has changed significantly. Instead of having only wooden materials as an option when creating a device, today many prosthetics are made from plastics and carbon fibers that have been designed particularly with the prosthetic industry in mind. This allows items to be created that are much more life-like than in the past. Materials such as titanium also have proven to be effective and last much longer than previous materials used, allowing a person to live more comfortably and for a longer period of time with a single prosthetic device instead of having to get fitted and replaced often.
Robotics and Bluetooth Technology in Prosthetics
Many of the prosthetics today make use of the latest technology to allow for greater flexibility and use. Many of the prosthetic limbs that are created today are made personally for the individual and contain different types of robotics and even Bluetooth technology to allow each device to be programmed to tailor each individual and whatever their primary needs may be. The Bluetooth can be used to help devices, such as prosthetic legs, to communicate with each other so that a person’s stride and pressure put on the legs is matched in each leg to help for proper regulation. Knees can be made that contain microprocessors so that a person has more control over the knees for greater control, particularly when someone is walking on an incline. Prosthetics hands are created using technology that speaks to the muscles to allow for finer and greater dexterity so that prosthetic hands can react properly and provide greater provision of use.
As science and technology continues to learn more about the human body and its function the industry will be able to continue to create advanced technology to allow for greater advances than ever before in the field of prosthetics. Technology has made great strides in a relatively short period of time as people are now able to be more independent and claim more of their lives than ever before when they are using these more advance prosthetic pieces. The ultimate goal is to create robotic prosthetic devices that can be controlled by the individual’s mind, giving them a way to utilize a prosthetic like never before.