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Losing a hand in an accident is traumatic. Even when a person receives a prosthetic limb, the return to normality may not be always close to a 100 per cent. But as technology develops, considerable progress is being made in this direction and positive results are gradually emerging. The results obtained in the case of 50-year-old Swedish woman are testimony to this.

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The case has exemplified how prosthetics are now aiming to 'fuse' with the stump of the severed hand in order to give the patient greater degree of mobility and even sense of touch. Use of Artificial Intelligence, among other things, is creating a difference.

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The case was reported by ScienceAlert and the team of engineers and researchers who worked with the patient has also published their findings in journal Science Robotics.

Karin (50) whose last name was not disclosed, lost her hand in a farming accident years ago. Instead of traditional prosthetics, she was reportedly fitted with a bionic hand which was a result of cutting-edge tech that makes the artificial hand directly connect with a user's bones, muscles and nerves. This creates a unique human-machine interface that facilitates use of AI to translate brain signals into simple, precise movements.

Karin, says the report, has now regained a limited sense of touch and can move all the fingers of the bionic hand with 95 per cent success rate.

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She spent two decades without her right hand after the farming accident. But now, she can carry out 80 per cent of her usual daily activities which include making meals, zipping and unzipping clothes or bags, working door knobs, picking up objects etc.

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The team of researchers includes those from Italy, Sweden and Australia.

"The fact that [Karin] has been able to use her prosthesis comfortably and effectively in daily activities for years is a promising testament to the potential life-changing capabilities of this novel technology for individuals facing limb loss," says Max Ortiz Catalán, a robotic engineer who led the research at  Bionics Institute in Melbourne, Australia and the Center for Bionics and Pain Research in Sweden. He was quoted on the institute's website.

"This integration is so strong that we can actually attach the artificial limb directly to the skeleton," says Ortiz Catalán in a video posted on  Center for Bionics and Pain Research's official YouTube channel.

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