Design student Lorenzo Spreafico has invented a prosthetic arm that could bring tactile feedback to people who can't currently afford it.
Spreafico designed the T1 prosthesis as his final year project in the Product Design bachelors at the University of Leeds in the UK.
The 3D-printed plastic arm incorporates vibro-tactile feedback, relaying information about how firmly a person is gripping or touching an object via vibrations to their skin.

The touch-based technologies he observed were either nonviable for commercial use or were destined to be prohibitively expensive.
"Even when this technology will decrease in price and be more affordable for users, it's still very likely to be part of a final product which costs from £30,000 to £100,000, if not more (which are the current prices of most prosthetic limbs)," he continued. "That's when I got the idea for T1: I wanted to realise a functional prosthetic arm, develop a simple tactile feedback system to be implemented into it, and make the whole product extremely affordable."
The estimated retail price for the T1 is £3,000, which Spreafico said would make it one of the most affordable myoelectric prosthetic arms available.

He chose to focus on pressure simulation in order to keep the device low-cost. In reality, he said, the somatosensory system is incredibly complex and can detect changes in temperature, shear, humidity, texture and more, and trying to replicate all of these dimensions would soon lead ...