Technology Used in Smartphones Could Make Prosthetic Limbs Easier to Use

Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology are working to advance prosthetic limbs through the use of accelorometer technology, which is commonly used in smartphones. In a device such as the iPhone, an accelerometer enables the screen to switch back and forth between landscape and portrait display modes, depending on how the phone is held. The technology could be used in artificial limbs to give users improved sense of the orientation, which could make the prosthetic easier to use.

Øyvind Stavdahl, an associate professor at NTNU’s Department of Engineering Cybernetics and Anders Fougner, a PhD candidate in the department, have shown that when an accelerometer is used in a prosthetic arm, it can facilitate user recognition of how a limb is oriented in space.

“Prostheses are driven by the remaining muscles in the severed limb,” Stavdahl says. “Sometimes, however, the prosthesis receives atypical signals from the muscles, which can confuse the system and lead to the prosthesis performing the wrong movement. Knowing the orientation of the arm is essential for normal prosthetic function.”