Nerve Interface For Direct Sensory Feedback

Staff Writer | Institute for Emerging Ethics & Technologies | June 27, 2013

This material is based upon the pioneering work supported (or supported in part) by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Research and Development, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. DARPA is now working with researchers at Case Western Reserve University to further develop this technology.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University used a flat interface nerve electrode (FINE) to demonstrate direct sensory feedback. By interfacing with residual nerves in the patient’s partial limb, some sense of touch by the fingers is restored. [...]