Canadian Start-up smartARM Uses AI to Create Intuitive Bionic Prosthetics

People and companies are using AI hardware and software to make life easier and more accessible for everyone. That’s the case with smartARM, a Toronto-based startup developing a vision-first bionic arm prototype that uses open-source software, with Meta AI glasses as an optional add-on, to explore more intuitive prosthetic control for people living with limb differences. Many traditional prosthetic hands require users to switch manually between grip patterns for different objects, making it cumbersome to move everyday items. Something as seemingly natural as picking up a glass, and then a spoon, becomes a multistep process. smartARM addressed this by developing AI hardware and software that understands the environment, and automatically selects a suitable grip for the object – so users can intuitively move between everyday tasks. smartARM’s prosthetic arm “sees” through a camera embedded in its palm. The team is using DINOv2, Meta’s open-source vision model, to help it recognize everyday objects from just a few reference photos, supporting smartARM’s grip-selection software.This allows it to grip and pick up objects based on direct visual feature reading, without needing prior understanding or additional programming. The arm can adapt almost instantly to objects trained on just a few photos – something that could take weeks previously. smartARM uses Meta AI Glasses and the Meta Wearables Device Access Toolkit to extend and improve object recognition and understanding, providing more data from the egocentric point of view the glasses offer. Meta AI glasses give the arm additional context to better understand what the user is trying to interact with. It also lets users add new objects, through the device app on their phones, giving everyone in the smartARM community a way to personalize their prosthetic around their everyday needs. For the people who wear it, the results are life altering: a bionic arm that works from the first try, with no training required. Long-time smartARM user and former NFL player Shaquem Griffin described what it feels like to use it: “Of all the tech packed into it, scalability and accessibility matter most to me. This is the future of consumer prosthetics.” “Building a capable hand is only part of the challenge. Making it intuitive to use matters just as much,” said Hamayal Choudhry, smartARM’s Founder and CEO. “By helping the arm recognize everyday objects and select a suitable grip, we’re working toward an experience where people can focus more on what they want to do and less on how to operate their prosthetic.”

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