Abstract
Analysis of human hand kinesiology has been used to justify the
design characteristics of terminal devices. The human hand is a complex mechanical
structure consisting of 15 articulations controlled by over 30 muscles for the 5 fingers.
It
functions as a communication, sensory, grasp and manipulation structure. Separating
essential hand kinesiology that is linked with each hand function might allow for
the
efficient development of terminal devices where there is one primary function such
as
grasping. It follows that to develop an effective grasping mechanism for a terminal
device
there should be a clear understanding of hand motions as they relate directly to the
grasping
function.
The conceptual framework used to characterize grasping functions will most likely
influence the development of terminal devices. There is a growing body of literature
that is
refining the way we think of grasping activities, and may impact the design of terminal
devices. For example, researchers have described the simplified coordination of hand
motions during grasp as “synergies” or “virtual fingers”, where there are predictable
dependencies of one finger on another. Using conceptual approaches such as the “virtual
fingers” concept will reduce the complexity of the description of the hand/object/task
interaction
Citation
Proceedings of the MEC’08 conference, UNB; 2008.
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