Biomimetic finger control by filtering of distributed forelimb pressures

A linear filter was developed for decoding finger commands from volitional pressures distributed within the residual forelimb. Filter parameters were based on dynamic pressures recorded from the residual limb within its socket, during specific finger commands. A matrix of signal features was derived from eight-dimensional (8-D) pressure vectors, and its pseudoinverse comprised the filter parameters. Results with amputees showed that the filter could discriminate specific finger flexion commands, suggesting that pressure vector decoding (PVD) can provide them with biomimetic finger control.