A partnership between Coapt LLC and WillowWood will result in the development of a new liner that aims to provide more advanced and comfortable use of upper extremity prostheses.
The partnership was announced during the recent MEC symposium, according to a media release from Coapt LLC.
Coapt LLC provides intuitive control systems for prosthetic arms, and WillowWood designs, manufactures, and distributes prosthetic products.
The liner is engineered to meld WillowWood’s expertise in interface materials and design with Coapt’s innovative pattern recognition solution. The new liner for pattern recognition control, borne as the result of research performed at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, will ultimately create a system that embeds electrodes into a prosthetic liner, giving users greater comfort, consistency and intuitive control of their myoelectric devices, per the release.
“We are excited to partner with Coapt to provide a new leading-edge interface option for the upper extremity prosthetic market,” says Matthew Wernke, PhD, applied research engineer at WillowWood, in the release. “Our complementary technologies are supported by years of research, development and patient testing with our partners at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab’s Center for Bionic Medicine. The collaboration of our organizations is ideal because we’re each motivated by designing the most positive and versatile prosthetic option for upper extremity amputees.”
Coapt’s director of clinical innovation, Gerald Stark, PhD, states, “WillowWood shares Coapt’s vision of enhancing the lives of the many thousands of amputees and people with congenital limb differences, allowing them to participate in work and other daily routines with ease. Bringing together our groundbreaking technologies will greatly benefit those who use advanced upper limb prostheses.”
The liner is targeted for release in 2018.
[Source: Coapt LLC]
