To restore walking after transfemoral amputation, various actuated exoprostheses have been developed, which control the knee torque actively or via variable damping. In both cases, an important issue is to find the appropriate control that enables user-dominated gait. Recently, we suggested a generic method to deduce intended motion of impaired or amputated limbs from residual human body motion. Based on interjoint coordination in physiological gait, statistical regression is used to estimate missing motion. In a pilot study, this complementary limb motion estimation (CLME) strategy is applied to control an active knee exoprosthesis. A motor-driven prosthetic knee with one degree of freedom has been realized, and one above-knee amputee has used it with CLME. Performed tasks are walking on a treadmill and alternating stair ascent and descent. The subject was able to walk on the treadmill at varying speeds, but needed assistance with the stairs, especially to descend. The promising results with CLME are compared with the subject's performance with her own prosthesis, the C-Leg from Otto Bock.
Damage to the developing brain may lead to impairment of the hand motor function and negatively impact on patients’ quality of life. Development of manual dexterity and finger and hand motor function may be promoted by learning to play the piano. The latter brings together music with the intensive training of hand coordination and fine finger mobility. We investigated if learning to play the piano helped to improve hand motor skills in 18 youths with hand motor disorders resulting from damage during early brain development. Participants trained 35–40 minutes twice a week for 18 months with a professional piano teacher. With the use of a Musical Instrument Digital Interface piano, the uniformity of finger strokes could be objectively assessed from the timing of keystrokes. The analysis showed a significant improvement in the uniformity of keystrokes during the training. Furthermore, the youths showed strong motivation and engagement during the study. This is nevertheless an open study, and further studies remain needed to exclude effects of growth and concomitant therapies on the improvements observed and clarify which patients will more likely benefit from learning to play the piano.
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