Researchers have created a device that allows people with amputations to experience such natural temperature sensations using their prostheses. The team created the MiniTouch in which a temperature sensor was placed on someone’s prosthetic hand at the location the phantom thermal sensations seemed to arise from. When the sensor detected a change in temperature away from a baseline of 32C, it sent a signal to a temperature controller. This relayed the information to another component that was mounted on the upper part of the prosthesis and touched the skin of the arm.
The temperature that had been detected by the sensor was then reproduced on the arm at the trigger location for the phantom sensations. The device reproduced temperatures from 20C to 40C. The upshot is that the person perceived a thermal sensation in their missing hand, at the location of the temperature sensor. To test the MiniTouch, the researchers fitted it to the prosthesis of a 57-year-old whose right arm was amputated below the elbow. The team found when using the device Fabrizio could discriminate between identical-looking bottles containing cold, hot, or room-temperature water, with 100% accuracy.
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