Our five senses help us perceive
the world around us . The sense of touch, for example, can bring loved ones closer but, on a darker note, can also frustrate amputees. What bothers them particularly about their prosthetic arms is missing feedback. Is what they are touching hot or cold, liquid or solid, a rose or its thorn; an aspect so universal for the able-bodied that it is not given a second thought.
Though it has not escaped Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers who are trying to replicate these senses (Engineering and Technology, August 2023). They have been busy developing artificial hands with softer fingers and embedded sensors. How long will it be before the problem is solved?
Well, a US company Atom Limb is expecting to release a mind-controlled prosthetic limb in 2024. In it the movement sensors in the hand section of the prosthesis send electronic signals to the wearer's stump, where the neurons once connected to the amputated hand are still in place and capable of transmission to the brain.
Notice how we know at once when there is something crawling on our skin. In May 2022, researchers at Stanford University's Bao Research Group announced the invention of artificial skin that is durable, paper thin and stretchable. This has the future potential of being wired into the wearer's nervous system to give a real touch capability -- namely, sensing temperature, pressure, vibration and location. Thus when the finger moves from the handle to the cup itself, you sense the change in temperature and distance.
Another sense, that of hearing or rather lack thereof, is not infrequently a source of humor. Possibly because the sufferers are able to compensate through other means. Beethoven suffered from Paget's disease. It caused skull bone enlargement which pressed on the eighth cranial nerve associated with auditory function. The loss was gradual from the age 28 to 44 when he was quite deaf. While he could still hear a little, he would strap an ear trumpet on his head so he could conduct the orchestra with his hands. He also carried a notebook and pencil to jot down musical brainstorms but also to converse with friends.
Hence the somewhat morbid joke of someone seeing Beethoven sitting on his grave furiously erasing some sheet of music. "Maestro! Maestro! What are you doing," the person asks, to which he gets the reply, "I am decomposing."
Hearing loss when it is congenital is no joke, however. It can inhibit language learning and speech. Thus the words 'deaf and dumb' are often placed together with 'dumb' of late being replaced by the kinder 'mute'.
Here again technology comes to the rescue. Cochlear implants have been around for quite a while. Invented in 1957, the first implant procedure is credited to Stanford University. A single-channel electrode was used but was found to be of limited utility for detecting speech. It took a further 20 years to get to the modern multi-channel type.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
