Wireless Temperature Sensing Cosmesis for Prosthesis

Abstract

For most prosthetic users, the break in sensation between their prosthesis and residual limb greatly limits their interaction with the environment. The sensation of temperature provides useful information for activities of daily living such as material discrimination, extreme temperature avoidance, and psychological comfort. This paper expands upon prior temperature displays in deploying a cosmetic covering that serves as a platform for embedded sensors. In order to utilize the sensors distributed throughout the cosmesis, a wireless sensing system is employed for communication between the sensors and the prosthetic hand. The authors show that users can identify the temperature ranges of the objects they grasp using the prosthetic hand with the sensing cosmesis on. The significance of relative temperatures is also shown as users report lower than actual temperature values due to prior exposure to higher temperature trials. As such, temperature is a valuable component of daily life, and further work towards temperature feedback for prosthetic users is warranted. An example would be the integration of multiple temperature points from sensor arrays embedded within prosthetic coverings so as to map the temperature of objects with greater resolution.