Electronic glove gives prosthetic hands the common touch

Prosthetic limbs have advanced tremendously in recent years, with lightweight materials and additive manufacturing creating highly personalised devices.

But although they can help restore mobility, they still lack all the features of a real human hand.

Now, researchers at Purdue University in Indiana have developed an electronic glove that can be worn over a prosthetic to provide softness, warmth and sensory perception. It uses thin, flexible electronic sensors and miniaturised silicon-based circuits on a nitrile glove, which is connected to a specially designed wristwatch for realtime display of sensory information.

As well as pressure and temperature, the glove can also track humidity and electrophysiological bio-signals, according to Chi Hwan Lee, an assistant professor in Purdue’s College of Engineering. At the same time, it provides “realistic human-hand-like softness, appearance and even warmth,” he said.

The glove is available in different skin-tone colours, and has lifelike fingerprints and fingernails.

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