Spring 2013 URSP participant Hozaifah Zafar:
There are millions of people all
around the world who are living a with a limb loss. Even though the advancement
in technology in the field of robotic limbs has reduced many barriers faced by
amputees in the practical life, the cost associated to these robotic limbs is
still out of reach for many people. Having the ability to offer an alternative
approach to operate these robotic limbs got me interested in this project. We
are working on a novel ultrasound-based control strategy for upper prosthetic
limbs, which not only improve the functionalities of such prosthetics but also
mitigates the associated cost. Every week I'm responsible for collecting the
data and to test and improve the current algorithm, which identifies the type
of movement based on the activation of specific muscle groups on the forearm. However
one thing to remember in research is everything might not go as you plan, which
is just part of the research. While running the collected data on our program this
week, we noticed that the algorithm despite being very successful on simple
tasks fails to distinguish between two of the complex movements. However, it's just part of a research and we
already identified a technique to resolve this issue. As a computer scientist,
I see this project very much related to the field I'm pursuing. I am
specifically responsible for designing and implementing an algorithm to identify
a type of movement based on the activation of specific muscle groups on the
forearm. I believe working on this project not only provides me a chance to
employ the techniques I have learned as an undergraduate student but also
provides an opportunity to familiarize myself with the research environment.
