Currently available upper-limb prostheses do not meet the needs or aspirations of the amputee. Many technical challenges have been given as the limiting factors on the further development of these prostheses. Generally developments have occurred as incremental developments on three existing moderately successful archetypes; the cosmetic, body-powered and myoelectric prostheses. Continued development on these archetypes appears to be further separating prostheses into those primarily considered cosmetic and those primarily considered functional. However, amputees have a need both for function and cosmesis from their prostheses. Technology currently being developed for actuation and control in other laboratories indicates that the previous limitations placed on prosthesis design may be challenged. Therefore, it is appropriate to look for new design archetypes. This thesis describes the development, implementation and evaluation of mechanical analogies of the skeletal components of the human hand and arm which have the potential to inform the design of a new generation of upper-limb prostheses integrating cosmesis and function in a single device. The research has been undertaken using a form of practice led design research methodology. This iterative methodology uses physical models for both evaluation and also as a means of encouraging end-user involvement in the design process. These evaluations are then used in subsequent cycles of research activity. The research has concentrated on developing mechanical analogies of the joints of the hand, wrist, forearm and elbow. The joints of the hand are shown to have a simple and similar structure. Therefore, a modular mechanical archetype has been elucidated that results in a hand configuration made from multiple similar modules positioned at different points throughout the hand. However, the wrist and forearm contain more complex joints which have been found to be unique to their anatomical position. The selection of appropriate prototyping techniques has been an integral part of the research. Problems have arisen in assessing the degree of analogy achieved because the intact joints of the human skeleton are covered by soft tissue that has not been part of the skeletal analogy implemented. Additionally, it is postulated that there are subtleties to human movement which are not reflected in standard anthropometric measures. Therefore, a two stage evaluation has been undertaken that assesses the quality of the analogy realised in the models. This consists of goniometric measures to quantify basic angular rotations whilst qualitative evaluations by professionals with a good anatomical knowledge have been used to assess the more subtle movements within the joints. The skeletal mechanical analogy developed through this research has been shown through evaluation to simulate the articulations of the human upper-limb. The model embodies design principles that appear to have short and long term significance to the field of prosthetics. The production of a tangible model has not only aided evaluation but has also stimulated research in other centres into ways of actuating and controlling a future upper-limb prosthesis. Additionally, the mechanical analogy may have applications in the field of telepresence robotics, aerospace and the entertainment industry.

A simple model of an antagonistic muscle system is developed based on several published physiological observations and is found to be a linear first order approximation to mammalian muscle. The model response is compared to that of the human hand in various tests including impulse response, frequency response, step response and the effect of sliding friction. The results of these tests are used to select the mechanical parameters of the proposed model. The final model simulates many of the observed responses of the human hand when executing motions similar to handwriting. A control scheme is proposed for use with the mechanical model and an electronic simulation of the whole system is conducted using a digital and an analogue computer. Good matches of displacement and acceleration waveforms from human handwriting were produced by the simulation. A discussion of some physiological evidence supporting the proposed control scheme is given. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of / Graduate

M.Tech.

The main purpose of this study was to observe the changes in muscular strength and endurance of the extensor muscles of the hand after the arm had been exposed to electrical stimulation. Twenty-four university students were chosen for this study. The subjects were divided into three groups of eight,, attempting to make each group homogeneous with respect to their Maximal Voluntary Iscitetric Contraction of the extensor muscles of the hand. All subjects were trained with the hand at 150 degrees with respect to the forearm (Position 1) . Group 1 (ES) received five minutes of electrical stimulation to the dorsal surface of the forearm each weekday for a four week period. The placement of the electrodes were at the musculotendonous area of the extensor muscles of the hand. The intensity of the faradic stimulation was just below the subjects pain threshold. Each contraction elicited by the electrical stimulation was for a duration of 880 msec, and the relaxation between each contraction was 1030 msec. Group 2 (VI) performed four sets of eight Maximal Voluntary Contractions, where each contraction was held for a duration of two seconds. Training took place on the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of each week for a four week duration. Group 3 (ES+VIj performed the training of Groups 1 and 2 for four weeks. Subjects were tested for their Maximal Voluntary Contraction in both Position 1 and Position 2 (180 degrees with respect to the forearm). Endurance was calculated on the subjects fatigue curve. The time in seconds to 65% of their MVC (for each testing period) was used as a measure of their relative endurance. The testing of strength and endurance was done before any training took place, after two weeks of training, and at the duration of the four week period. Significant strength gains occurred in all three groups between the Pre test and Mid-Post in Position 1 and Position 2. During the Mid-Post training period only the ES+VI group had significant strength gains in Position 1; whereas in Position 2 both the ES and ES+VI groups yielded significant strength gains. It was illustrated that individual strength gains in the ES and VI groups were not additive in either position tested, and that one training method is not significantly better than another when observing mean strength gains over time. During the four week training period the endurance of the muscles did not alter significantly when locking at the mean of all three groups. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Hand of Glory is a collection of poems smashed together using a spotlight shining on a pseudo slasher movie language. I was attempting to talk about love, pain, and isolation by using a lexicon that was not my own to create or look at a memorial differently. It was written from 2010-2014 at UMass Amherst under the tutelage of Dara Wier, James Tate, Peter Gizzi, and Noy Holland with help from Matthew Suss, Ben Kopel, Caroline Cabrera, Anne Holmes, Gale Thompson, and many others.

No description available.

This study is an initial attempt to investigate the dialog between knitting and tufting. The approach is to experiment with different knitting techniques for different results and subsequently use the tufting as a decorative shaping tool for the knitted fabric. By using the method of trial and error, the goal was to find criteria to make the material lead. Subsequently, this study questions the common way of tufting by bringing an element of stretchy into the execution. The thesis shows the development of an alternative backing for tufting to make a wearable fabric for fashion. It was concluded that it is possible to tuft in a knitted fabric as long as the fabric has tension. The criteria for executing this method were that the knitted fabric can not be too sparsely knitted and one has to use the loop-tufting gun to be able to make stitches.

A conflicted and contentious literature has emerged from the proposal that visuospatial information from static images can automatically trigger associated motor representations. Curiously, investigations into this visual-motor relationship have predominantly focused on images of manipulable objects, while relatively little work has made use of images of body parts- whose referents are represented directly in the motor system. Limited work has made use of hand images as task-irrelevant primes, in an effort to determine whether a hand image automatically evokes a motor representation of the viewer’s corresponding limb. The results of these studies have provided diverging evidence and have resulted in competing theoretical accounts. Here, I present results from a series of stimulus-response compatibility experiments that were designed to probe the nature of representations generated by static hand images, while also addressing potential methodological weaknesses of the previous works. The results show that both stimulus properties and task demands influence the way in which an image of a hand is coded. Notably, I provide clear evidence that motor representations can be evoked automatically by depictions of particular hand postures, but that these representations are not an automatic, ineluctable component of the general processing of any hand image. These results not only contribute to a more unified account of hand representations, but also have wider implications for our understanding of the conditions under which static displays can engage motor representations. / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.