Getting to grips with a new hand

By Wang Qian | China Daily | Updated: 2023-12-09 10:59 The research team, including Hu Xuhui, and Xu attend the event to demonstrate their latest product and how humans and machines can collaborate. Compared to the clawlike cableoperated prosthesis she wore in the March competition this year, her new hand has five fingers, which is controlled by the electrical signals generated naturally by her muscles, according to Hu Xuhui, head of the team. "Such a signal is measured at the skin's surface, where the source signals produced by motor neurons not only undergo low-frequency filtering caused by muscle, fat and subcutaneous tissues, but are also contaminated by daily objects, such as those associated with electromagnetic interference and electrode displacement," Hu says. From the previous cable-operated prosthetic hand with a mechanical hook, which worked by attaching a harness and cable around the opposite shoulder to the damaged arm, to the current prothesis, Xu has seen the great improvements that Hu's team has made since they first contacted her through the Suzhou Disabled Persons' Federation in 2019. "Although we have a missing upper limb, we are not going to be limited by the physical challenge," Xu says, adding that one day maybe technology can help make that goal easier to realize.