Press Releases 2023

For anyone who has lost a hand, a functional prosthetic hand is of enormous benefit when it comes to everyday activities. So researchers at Fraunhofer are working as part of an EU research project to improve control of prosthetic hands down to individual fingers. Instead of conventional electrodes that detect nerve impulses in muscle tissue in the arm, these rely on ultrasonic sensors. This means commands can be executed with far greater accuracy and sensitivity. In the next stage, researchers want to make the design bidirec-tional, with the brain also receiving sensory stimuli from the prosthesis.

In the EU project "AI4HealthSec", an international team of researchers aims to provide operators of health information infrastructures with innovative software tools to improve the detection and analysis of cyberattacks and threats and thus, to increase the security of health information infrastructures. For this purpose, the project will develop and validate the so-called AI4HealthSec platform. The Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT is contributing its many years of expertise in the development of innovative health information systems and their validation to the project. It provides three of its systems as examples to test the AI4HealthSec platform.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT have been working with international partners to develop a technology platform to help relieve the symptoms of muscle tremors. Tiny biocompatible electrodes in the muscles, combined with external electrodes and controllers, form an intelligent network of sensors and actuators to detect muscle signals and provide electrical stimuli as needed. Together with exoskeletons, the technology could also help people with spinal cord injuries.

They are barely the size of a thumbnail, able to communicate with each other and respond to each other, and designed to make life easier for people with functional limitations. We are talking about a new generation of interactive microimplants developed by the innovation cluster INTAKT, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT. These miniature assistants can act as a stimulus in cases of tinnitus or digestive tract disorders or help a person’s hand to regain the ability to grip.