A Chinese research team has created a robotic finger that can identify malignancies by taking your pulse using sophisticated sensors.
The pain of having a doctor's icy fingertips go across delicate skin is something most people can relate to. Or the pain of allowing the doctor to touch or otherwise inspect particularly delicate parts of your body, we may soon be able to say goodbye to these awkward doctor's office encounters.
The goal of a new technology created by a group of researchers from China's University of Science and Technology (USTC) is to put patients more at ease during medical appointments while also decreasing the incidence of incorrect diagnoses. A group of researchers from USTC have created a bendable robotic finger that can detect cancers, take patients' pulses, and carry out other standard medical procedures. The 129-millimeter robotic finger has been given the abbreviation BSF, which stands for "bioinspired soft finger."
While surgeons do make use of robotic fingers, the Chinese researchers point out that these devices lack precision due to the complexity of the human sense of touch in the fingers. For this reason, they have created a delicate robotic finger with tiny sensors embedded in its joints. In response, a computer receives signals that allow it to track finger joint motions.
In addition, the researchers have embedded impulse-measuring sensors in a metal fiber near the tip of the finger.
No more humiliating medical appointments
Those humiliating trips to the doctor are over. It may have a human-like sensation due to the finger's ability to detect impulses at the tip and the way the joints bend when traversing rough surfaces. Researchers observed the robot's sensors perfectly register touches when they slid a feather over the finger and pressed it with a glass rod to test the technique.
Afterwards, the finger was attached to a robotic arm, which was then instructed to detect three bumps on a silicone plate. In addition to taking a pulse, it found a blood vessel on a test subject. The finger has the potential to alleviate pain during medical exams and potentially increase the incidence of missed tumors, according to the researchers. In the near future, the technology could be available, according to USTC researchers who are working on its further development.