Smart Prosthesis System: Continuous Automatic Prosthesis Fitting Adjustment and Real-time Stress Visualization

Prosthetic devices have significantly improved mobility and quality of life for amputees. Significant engineering advancements have been made in artificial limb biomechanics, joint control systems, and light-weight materials. Amputees report that the primary problem they face with their artificial limbs is a poor fitting socket. In this paper, we propose a smart prosthesis system, in which we measure the real-time force distributions within a prothetic socket and dynamically visualize the results in a mobile application. A major part of the overall proposed system, a wireless pressure sensing system and a force visualization method, are evaluated at current stage. Finally, corresponding works for fully completing this smart prosthesis system are discussed as well.