Losing an arm and/or a leg can be horrifying for a lot of people. The things that they can do become very limited, and for those who rely on them for livelihood, the loss means being out of a job in record time. There's also the physical pain, emotional trauma, and even discrimination.
That's why majority opt for prosthetics to regain at least some of their limbs' basic functions. Although many of the prosthetic arms and legs today closely resemble the texture of the original ones or allow the person to perform many things he used to do before, they are still lacking some abilities like really feel the sensation, perhaps of holding something.
Thus, the prosthetics attached to two men are now considered as being radical. Not only are they able to return to their previous activities, they were also able to feel sensation. Most of all, these prosthetics work naturally as the user can already control them through their brain.
Forty-eight-year-old Igor Spetic and Keith Vonderhueval were two of the first ones to receive these radical prosthetics. What the researchers did was to make use of the remaining stump, which still haves some nerves left. The wires of the prosthetics went through these nerves and then stimulated by currents. In the process, they could feel sensations in up to 19 specific points.
The importance of sensation and sense of texture can be best illustrated in an experiment conducted wherein they ended up squeezing the fruits such as grapes when these sensations were "turned off." When it was on, they could feel how soft these items were and thus went gentle with their grasp.
According to the researchers, the ability to sense what they're touching is also one of the best ways to help them connect with the world. With it they can now effectively interact with the objects they see.
Much has to be done, though. So far, the work is limited to lab. It also takes a while to develop one. It took the team about two years to make each of these prosthetics.