NORTH-EAST scientists are leading a new £1.4m research project which aims to produce a sensitive bionic hand that can transmit information back to the brain.

Led by Newcastle University and involving experts from the universities of Leeds, Essex, Keele, Southampton and Imperial College London, the aim is to develop novel electronic devices that connect to the forearm neural networks to allow two-way communications with the brain.

Reminiscent of Luke Skywalker’s artificial hand, the electrodes in the bionic limb would wrap around the nerve endings in the arm. This would mean for the first time the hand could communicate directly with the brain, sending back real-time information about temperature and pressure.

The project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Led by Dr Kianoush Nazarpour, a lecturer in biomedical engineering at Newcastle University, the team hope to develop technologies to give amputees a real sense of feedback and create a limb that more closely mirrors the real thing.

“The UK leads the way in the design of prosthetic limbs but until now one of the limiting factors has been the technology to allow the hand to communicate with the brain,” explains Dr Nazarpour.

“If we can design a system that allows this two-way communication it would help people to naturally reach out and pick up a glass, for example, whilst maintaining eye contact in a conversation.”

Bringing together some of the UK’s leading researchers in this field of rehabilitation research, the team will build fingertip sensors to give the prosthesis a realistic sense of touch, including pressure and temperature.

In addition, a ‘virtual hand’ will provide information on the sense of the hand’s position.

Finally, the system will translate the signals to a form the brain understands and stimulate the nervous system to help the user control the hand.