June 10, 1998

PISCATAWAY, New Jersey (CNN) -- Researchers said Wednesday the first prosthetic hand that would allow amputees to move fingers independently could be ready for production in a year.

A Rutgers University research team is hailing as a breakthrough the new artificial hand designed to give amputees individual control over at least three fingers by using their original nerve pathways.

The prototype, which was demonstrated at the university Wednesday, allows so much control that one amputee has been able to play a keyboard with it.

"It's great," said Keith St. John, a 35-year-old geology student whose left hand was amputated after a machinery accident.

The new prosthetic hand was created 14 months ago by a team led by Rutgers biomedical professor Dr. William Craelius, who told reporters "for the first time we have people able to move multiple fingers by their own command."

"Each of the three amputees we've tested has been remarkable in their ability to control this," he said.

The device shatters the limits of existing technology by offering a broader range of movement. Current technology provides only one form of movement -- the ability to open and close a prosthesis by flexing a muscle.

"This is just the beginning," said Carey Glass, a prosthetics consultant on the project. "We can start to think about wrist usage, elbow, even shoulder" usage for people who have lost an entire arm.

Researchers will continue testing the prototype on volunteers and may have the prosthesis ready for marketing within a year.

The prototype consists of the artificial hand, a silicon sleeve custom-fitted over the end of the arm and three sensors inside the sleeve. The sensors pick up natural motions of tendons and transmits them to a desktop computer which then relays a signal to the hand.

One goal in continuing development of the device is to create a computer small enough to be carried by the user.

The prototype operates only the thumb, middle finger and pinky, but future models should be able to work all five digits.

Existing prosthetic hands have a metal "claw," or a soft-plastic hand with a thumb and four fingers, but only the thumb and first two fingers move.

About 50,000 Americans have had part of an arm amputated, and about 3,000 babies born each year with deformed arms could use such a prosthesis, according to Glass.