Otto Bock first presented a unique advancement in the medical technology field in Vienna at the end of 2007 and Germany in 2008: The mind-controlled arm prosthesis.
The prototype of this innovation was presented by Christian Kandlbauer from the Steiermark in Austria. Kandlbauer lost both arms in an accident with high-voltage current. Now he controls the seven joints of the revolutionary prosthetic arm in real time through the mental movements of his phantom arm alone.
Otto Bock is proud to present the further development of the mind-controlled arm prosthesis from a prototype to a prosthesis for everyday use. The existing version with three joints already offers an unusually high level of day-to-day autonomy and independence for the user.
For Kandlbauer, who works in a garage, his new prosthesis led to a dream come true: He obtained his driver's license on October 19, 2009 and has been travelling back and forth to work in his own vehicle without assistance ever since.
The success of this innovative prosthesis is based on TMR (targeted muscle reinnervation), a process that uses residual nerves in the residual limb for the control of prosthesis functions. The four key arm nerves N. medianus, N. radialis, N. ulnaris and N. musculocutaneus are systematically relocated to the surgically segmented chest musculature. Once reinnervation is complete (a process that can take several months depending on the length of the regeneration segment), the surface of the chest (TMR region) forms an interface to the human brain. Electric nerve impulses coming from this region can be sampled and processed by surface electrodes as an EMG (electromyography). Powerful micro-controllers in the prosthesis calculate the motor commands underlying the impulses in real time and generate the equivalent control commands for the prosthesis.
The mind-controlled prosthetic arm allows the user to complete movements in the joints the way they were executed by the natural arm prior to amputation: Intuitively and simultaneously.
