The 2006 conference, "Smart Prosthetics: Exploring Assistive Devices for the Body and Mind," attracted scientists, engineers and medical researchers to participate in a series of task groups to develop research plans to address various challenges within the prosthetics field. Eleven conference task groups gave the participants eight hours to develop new research approaches to various challenges, including: build a smart prosthesis that will grow with a child; develop a smart prosthetic that can learn better and/or faster; refine technologies to create active orthotic devices; and describe a framework for replacing damaged cortical tissue and fostering circuit integration to restore neurological function. Representatives from public and private funding organizations, government, industry, and the science media also participated in the task groups. This book provides a summary of the conference task groups. For more information about the conference, visit the Smart Prosthetics conference site. The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative was launched in 2003 to stimulate new modes of scientific inquiry and break down the conceptual and institutional barriers to interdisciplinary research. The National Academies and the W.M. Keck Foundation believe considerable scientific progress and social benefit will be achieved by providing a counterbalance to the tendency to isolate research within academic fields. The Futures Initiative is designed to enable researchers from different disciplines to focus on new questions upon which they can base entirely new research, and to encourage better communication between scientists as well as between the scientific community and the public. Funded by a $40 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative is a 15-year effort to catalyze interdisciplinary inquiry and to enhance communication among researchers, funding agencies, universities, and the general public with the object of stimulating interdisciplinary research at the most exciting frontiers. The Futures Initiative builds on three pillars of vital and sustained research: interdisciplinary encounters that counterbalance specialization and isolation; the identification and exploration of new research topics; and communication that bridges languages, cultures, habits of thought, and institutions. Toward these goals, the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative incorporates three core activities each year: Futures conferences, Futures grants, and National Academies Communication Awards. For more information about the Initiative, visit www.keckfutures.org.

Active Above-Knee Prosthesis: A Guide to a Smart Prosthetic Leg presents original research and development results, providing a firsthand overview of idea generation and prototype production. The book gives insights into the problem of stair ascent for people with above-knee amputation and offers a solution in the form of a physical prototype of an active above-knee prosthesis with an actuated ankle. The book's authors have developed and tested a physical prototype of an active above-knee prosthesis, giving anyone who is researching and designing prosthetic devices firsthand knowledge on how to build on, and continue with, work that has already been done. - Presents state-of-the-art technology in powered prosthetics - Helps readers evaluate design options and create new developments - Provides guidance on the evolution of advanced prosthetic design

The U.S. Census Bureau has reported that 56.7 million Americans had some type of disability in 2010, which represents 18.7 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population included in the 2010 Survey of Income and Program Participation. The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) provides disability benefits through the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. As of December 2015, approximately 11 million individuals were SSDI beneficiaries, and about 8 million were SSI beneficiaries. SSA currently considers assistive devices in the nonmedical and medical areas of its program guidelines. During determinations of substantial gainful activity and income eligibility for SSI benefits, the reasonable cost of items, devices, or services applicants need to enable them to work with their impairment is subtracted from eligible earnings, even if those items or services are used for activities of daily living in addition to work. In addition, SSA considers assistive devices in its medical disability determination process and assessment of work capacity. The Promise of Assistive Technology to Enhance Activity and Work Participation provides an analysis of selected assistive products and technologies, including wheeled and seated mobility devices, upper-extremity prostheses, and products and technologies selected by the committee that pertain to hearing and to communication and speech in adults.

From the wooden teeth of George Washington to the Bly prosthesis, popular in the 1860s and boasting easy uniform motions of the limb, to today's lifelike approximations, prosthetic devices reveal the extent to which the evolution and design of technologies of the body are intertwined with both the practical and subjective needs of human beings. The peculiar history of prosthetic devices sheds light on the relationship between technological change and the civilizing process of modernity, and analyzes the concrete materials of prosthetics which carry with them ideologies of body, ideals, body politics, and culture. Simultaneously critiquing, historicizing, and theorizing prosthetics, Artificial Parts, Practical Lives lays out a balanced and complex picture of its subject, neither vilifying nor celebrating the merger of flesh and machine.

Wearable sensors have evolved from body-worn fitness tracking devices to multifunctional, highly integrated, compact, and versatile sensors, which can be mounted onto the desired locations of our clothes or body to continuously monitor our body signals, and better interact and communicate with our surrounding environment or equipment. In this Book, we discuss the latest advances in textile-based and skin-like wearable sensors with a focus on three areas, including (i) personalised health monitoring to facilitate recording physiological signals, body motions, and analysis of body fluids, (ii) smart gloves and prosthetics to realise the sensation of touch and pain, and (iii) assistive technologies to enable disabled people to operate the surrounding motorised equipment using their active organs. We also discuss areas for future research in this emerging field.

Artificial limbs, or prosthetics, have been recorded in history as early as ancient Egypt. Innovations over the centuries mean that many who are missing or have lost a limb, whether through trauma, disease, or congenital condition, can be fitted with limbs that not only look authentic, but also effectuate the movements of human limbs. This wide-ranging work details the kinds of prostheses available today, how they're made, how they work, the challenges that face those who use them, and exciting advances in prosthetic technology. Readers will marvel at these medical wonders as well as the people who fabricate and utilize them.