Gripmitt: An electronic exoskeleton for improved hand movement

Grip is the result of sequence of operations including opening of hand, positioning of fingers, bringing the fingers closer to the object and maintaining the hold of an object. Gripping is a problem in many people, may it be patients with brain injury, spinal cord injury, nerve injury, fractures and many more. The formation of the grip requires action of flexors and extensors of wrist and fingers. If any of these is affected, this grip will be affected or it may also be lost. Problems in gripping hampers even the basic activities of daily life's, like picking up a glass of water, wringing clothes, holding a bottle, etc. This increases the dependency of the patient on others and thus reduces the quality of life. Cylindrical grip is one of the most powerful grips that enable a person to grab cylindrical objects like a glass of water, a bottle, etc. Other types of grip includes spherical grip, point grip etc. Here, we introduce Gripmitt. This device provides an external assistance to the user to make a cylindrical grip possible. In order to achieve this, the patient's functioning of the shoulder and elbow needs to be intact. This device operates on verbal commands given by the patient himself. Voice of the patient and function of each verbal command is pre-stored in the module. Patient needs no external assistance once the device is fitted on his/her hand. The device can be easily mounted and unmounted from the patient's hand and it can be effectively used.