Revolutionizing Prosthetics: Solaiman Shokur's Thermal Sensation Innovation

Breaking the Wall of Thermal Sensations in Amputees

Winner Interview 2024: Engineering & Technology

Solaiman Shokur has pioneered a breakthrough in prosthetic development by integrating thermal feedback into prosthetic hands. His non-invasive technology allows amputees to perceive temperature changes, enhancing the natural feel and social interaction capabilities of prosthetics, thereby significantly improving user embodiment and overall experience.

Which wall does your research or project break?

For a long time, the focus of prosthetic development for amputees was on designing robotic devices to restore motor functions. In the last decade, several groups, including ours, have aimed to enhance prosthetics with sensory feedback (for example, allowing users to perceive shapes and textures at the fingertips of their robotic prosthetic hand). But, in the quest to restore the rich palette of sensory feedback for prosthetic users, one sensory modality has often been
neglected: thermal sensation. Adding thermal feedback for prosthetic users can allow the perception of nuances of haptic sensation, for example, the detection of objects' materials based on their thermal proprieties (e.g., copper at room temperature cools down the skin more than plastic) or humidity. Even more important is the presence of thermal sensation in the social aspect of touch and pleasantness. Adding thermal sensation to bionic hands could significantly improve users'
embodiment of their prostheses.

In this study, we have demonstrated, for the first time, a technology that allows amputees to perceive thermal sensation via their prosthetic hand. We have found that by warming up and cooling down specific spots of the residual arm of amputees, we could trigger the illusion that the missing hand and fingers were warming up or cooling down: we call this mechanism a phantom thermal sensation. Importantly our technology is non invasive and stay at the surface of the skin (needs no surgery) We next exploited this discovery and built a wearable device that can instrument any existing prosthesis to provide thermal sensation. We have tested our technology with 27 amputees.

What are the three main goals of your research or project?

My primary goal is to enhance prosthesis embodiment. To achieve this, it's essential to integrate advanced sensory feedback mechanisms, particularly thermal feedback, which significantly improves how natural the prosthetic hand feels. By implementing responsive and accurate thermal sensors, we can provide users with real-time temperature sensations, thus increasing the prosthesis's natural feel and its integration with the user's body. Second, I focus on investigating the neural mechanisms that occur post-amputation. Understanding these neural processes is crucial for developing effective non-invasive technologies that target and stimulate nerves. This research involves mapping brain reorganization and identifying the specific neural pathways involved in order to enhance the functionality of prosthetic devices.Finally, I aim to support the industrialization of thermally sentient prosthetics. My goal is to develop technologies that are easy to deploy and can be seamlessly integrated into existing prosthetic hands, making advanced sensory feedback more accessible to users.

What advice would you give to young scientists or students interested in pursuing a career in research, or to your younger self starting in science?

My advice would be to learn from everyone. Sometimes the best ideas come from talking with people from very different fields than yours. When going to conferences, do not only schedule the talks from the 10-15 well-known scientists in your field.  My second piece of advice would be to write often. There is really no other way to learn. Write intermediate results, write them in a clear manner that makes sense to your future self.

What impact does your research or project have on society?

Improves the quality of life of people with amputation, could reduce patients abandonment rate.  

What is one surprising fact about your research or project that people might not know?

We found the presence of phantom thermal sensation by serendipity... Our original test was much simpler, we wanted to know the thermal sensitivity on the stump, but suddenly one patient said this feels like you are warming my missing finger.

What’s the most exciting moment you've experienced over the course of your research or project?

One amputee user said: "If I could use this at home I would really enjoy so I could fell the warmth of my kid's hand in my phantom hand."

Another said: “Temperature feedback is a nice sensation because you feel the limb, the phantom limb, entirely. It does not feel phantom anymore because your limb is back."