Digital Extension with Haptic Feedback

Current medical technologies have a distinct lack of haptic feedback based technology in the field and primarily rely on more advanced tools specifically designed for specific tasks. When there isn’t a specific tool for a given task, more often than not a surgeon will have to rely on their digits (fingers) to complete the task at hand. This has inherent risks involving infection and general mechanical error, and because digits are something that are genetically capped in terms of size and length there is also an upper limit to what your digits can accurately do. This creates a predicament in how the medical industry can overcome this hurdle and create the ability to extend the users hands for the increased functionality of their natural born digits while also keeping surgery safe and practical. UTSA Innovators have created an invention that would serve to provide a physical extension to the fingers while also providing a degree of pressure sensing (haptic feedback) and movement control. Haptic feedback currently exists in robotics, technology, and, within the biomedical engineering field, as a part of robotic surgeries, but nothing that can directly be used by humans. This innovation proposes to specifically provide a user an extension of their fingers, approximately up to 8 inches, in order to extend his or her digital feel and control, possibly for purposes such as performing medical procedures or palpations. Robert Graham robert.graham@utsa.edu (210) 458-8139