評論
打印
Science & technology
科技板塊
Prosthetics
義肢
A new prosthetic hand
一種新型假手
It gives users the sensation of touch, and is cheaper than alternatives, too
它能賦予使用者觸感，而且比其它替代品便宜
Prosthetic limbs have been around for a long time.
假肢已經有很長的歷史了。
The oldest known, a piece of wood carved and painted to replace the lost toe of an Egyptian noblewoman, dates back more than 3,000 years.
已經最古老的假肢可以追溯至3000多年前，是一塊經過雕刻和涂漆的木頭，用來代替一位埃及貴婦人失去的腳趾。
But prosthetics which behave like the real thing as well as looking like it are still very much a work in progress.
不過，外形和功能都像真肢體的假肢基本上仍在研發中。
And a group at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in China, have just come up with what looks to be a significant advance—an affordable prosthetic hand
不久前，中國上海交通大學的一個研究小組取得了一項重大進展，他們發明了一種造價低廉的假手，
that not only responds like a real one to signals from the wearer's brain, but is also able to signal back to the brain what it is touching and doing.
它不僅能像真手那樣響應佩戴者的大腦發出的信號，還能向大腦發回有關它的動作和物品觸感的信號。
Gu Guoying and his colleagues describe their invention in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
谷國迎和他的同事在《自然生物醫學工程》上對他們的發明作出了描述。
Its fingers are made of rigid tubes connected by soft joints.
這只假手的手指由軟關節連接的剛性管制成，
These are similarly connected to a 3D-printed plastic palm.
通過相似的方式連接到一個3D打印的塑料手掌上。
The whole is covered with a flexible elastomer layer to mimic skin and is attached to the user's residual limb via a customised plastic socket.
整只假手上覆蓋著一層柔性彈性體，模擬皮膚，并通過定制的塑料接口連接到用戶的殘肢上。
In contrast to current models, which are electrically powered, Dr Gu's hand is powered pneumatically by a pump held in a waist bag, with the connecting air lines running under the user's clothes alongside communication cables.
與目前的電動假手不同，谷國迎的氣動假手通過裝在一個腰包里的氣泵驅動，連接氣泵與假手的充氣線和通訊電線藏在使用者的衣服里面。
This reduces its weight below 300 grams—half that of some current models, and less, indeed, than the weight of a real hand—though the waist bag adds a further 444 grams.
這使假手的重量減少到了300克以下，重量只有目前一些型號的一半，實際上比真手還要輕。不過，裝有氣泵的腰袋還有444克的重量。
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