Bionic hands enter the app age

Short Sharp Science: Bionic hands enter the app age: "Other primates have opposable thumbs, sure, but only we have an app for them. It comes with this new prosthetic hand, unveiled last week by developer Touch Bionics.



The powered thumb is controlled by signals from the user's arm muscles or - in a first for upper limb prostheses - via a smartphone app: a tap of the screen and the hand automatically arranges itself into a preset grip. The thumb can move into 24 different positions and new, extra-sensitive fingertip electrodes also give improved dexterity."