Otto Bock Announces Launch of Breakthrough Myoelectric Technology
Karen Lundquist
Marketing Communications Manager
Otto Bock Health Care
763.489.5111
OTTO BOCK ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF BREAKTHROUGH
MYOELECTRIC TECHNOLOGY
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA January 8, 2004- Otto Bock Health Care announced today the launch of the SensorHand SPEED™, the newest addition to their broad line of upper extremity myoelectric prosthetic products.
With a proportional speed between 15 and 300mm per second, the new SensorHand® Speed is more than twice as fast as the original SensorHand, and even more responsive due to enhanced EMG signal processing and improved software. Engineers at Otto Bock were able to fit a new, quieter motor into the hand, while at the same time retaining the unique ‘Autograsp’ feature of the original SensorHand, which senses when an object held in the hand requires more grip force and then automatically adjusts tension as would happen in the case of filling a glass with water. The SensorHand SPEED now also has increased opening power, designed to overcome any resistance from stiff gloves and handshells, and also works effectively in temperatures as low as -4° F (-20° C). New coding plug options include the most realistic control over opening and closing as well as the option of shutting off the sensor when delicacy is a must.
“The SensorHand SPEED is simply amazing,” says Peter Nohre, Market Manager for Myoelectic products at Otto Bock, “It’s quicker to open, quicker to change between opening and closing functions and even quicker to accumulate grip force-all of which add up to a very high user acceptance rate. Experienced users even say that they can’t ‘outcontract’ the hand.”
This newest prosthetic hand from Otto Bock Health Care was also designed to work with Otto Bock’s MyoBoy and MyoSoft Software, which together create a powerful prosthetic tool for the evaluation, component selection, training and documentation of myoelectric patients. MyoBoy measures patient muscle potentials with the same electrodes used in the definitive prosthesis and also aids in the determination of outcome at first evaluation by testing with virtual components.
Established in 1958, Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Otto Bock Health Care LLP is the North and South American corporate headquarters of Otto Bock Healthcare, GmbH, based in Duderstadt, Germany. Otto Bock has more than 3,500 employees worldwide and produces over 20,000 types of prosthetic and orthotic components, rehabilitation products and technical plastics, and also provides information technology services.
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