AI Vision designs humanoid-looking robotic hands. The skeletal hand shown here was designed for the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute under a Phase Two SBIR grant from the National Institute of Health. The hand is driven remotely by 18 stepper motors and a cabling system similar to bicycle hand brakes.

The hand was originally designed to sign the alphabet of the American Sign Language to deaf-blind people. Since sight and sound are not available to a deaf-blind person, they rely entirely on touch to communicate with other people. A remote sender can type at a keyboard, these signals are transmitted by modem to the hand, and the reader would hold the robotic hand as it moves, thus receiving the communication.