medGadget recently posted a brief article about the HAL-5 exoskeleton, a Japanese invention that looks like Matsushita’s robotic arm on steriods (and with a few limbs added). The HAL-5 is also a wearable robotic device, intended particularly to give health care workers greater strength for lifting. There’s a link to an earlier medGadget article, as well as one to the original post at Engadget (English).
There’s a charmingly incoherent Google translation of an Engadget (Japanese) article from last October here, as well.
MIT is developing a robot named Domo, a humanoid-type machine which is an early version of what one day may be a ‘thinking’ mechanical assistive device. According to Aaron Edsinger, a post-doctoral associate at MIT, the focus is on
. . . making a robot that can function in a real human environment — in someone’s kitchen, for example. Robots that are designed to help people in their homes will have to be able to ignore the clutter found in most environments and focus only on certain stimuli . . .
Continue reading ‘Humanoid Assistive Robot Under Development’
Last year my husband acquired another a new handheld device (as if he needed another one!) — a GPS, also known as a Global Positioning Device. If you’re not too concerned about privacy and freedom and stuff like that, you may have one in your car.
Continue reading ‘Accessible Geocaching’
Mike Spindle, from Trekinetic, has responded to my post about the Trekinetic K-2 All-Terrain wheelchair. He writes:
. . . yes the customers do love it!
Some are in use as everyday chairs in countries as diverse as UK, Ireland, Wales, India, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Belgium, Australia and Africa.
It’s not just for offroad — with smooth tyres the FWD is fast too!
He also sent the excellent photo you see above. ‘Nuff said — a picture’s worth, etc., etc.
The prosthetic legs I’m most familiar with are the high tech, robotic-looking, high-functioning type that athletes use (like the one at left, from Otto Bock), so I was interested to see Heather Mills last night in a dancing competition. Ms. Mills, best-known for her entanglement with former Beatle Paul McCartney, lost a leg many years ago in an accident, and is generally photographed wearing a prosthesis designed to look much like her unharmed leg.
Continue reading ‘Silicone “Skin” for Prosthetic Limbs’
OK, I won’t be objective about this. I’ve never used it; have never seen it in use; and have no idea if this particular wheelchair does even half of what the designers claim — or if it performs as well as they claim. But this thing is beautiful — more beautiful than any contemporary exotic car I’ve yet seen on the road. The design, and what it implies of performance, just takes my breath away.
Continue reading ‘Wheelchair, or Art? High-Tech Hits the (Off) Road’
The Open Prosthetics Project blog (“Prosthetics Shouldn’t Cost An Arm and A Leg”) apparently hasn’t been updated since October 2006, and it’s a crying shame. OPP hopes to be to prosthetics development what Linux is to Microsoft — an open source design house which requires no licensing fees to build or share prosthetics engineering.
Continue reading ‘Experimental Prosthetic Hand That Began As Sushi Rice in a Glove’
According to the BBC, Researchers at the University of Southern California have developed a “bionic eye” and will begin doing clinical trials to test the device. A camera is mounted on glasses and sends an image to electrodes implanted in the retina, stimulating the damaged cells in the eye.
What we are trying to do is take real-time images from a camera and convert them into tiny electrical pulses that would jump-start the otherwise blind eye and allow patients to see,” said Professor Mark Humayun, from the University of Southern California.
At the moment, the implants produce only rudimentary vision. According to The Washington Post, six patients have used the implants to “distinguish light, perceive motion, and identify general shapes and objects.”
The trials are expected to take two years, after which the BBC reports that the devices are expected to become available to individuals at a cost of approximately $30,000 USD. The targeted diseases are retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration, which cause the death of retinal cells; according to the Washington Post, the new study will focus on patients over 50 years of age.
Last September at Tokyo’s Home Care and Rehabilitation Exhibition in, Matsushita Electrical Industries showed a robotic jacket which lets a partially paralyzed limb move in response to cues from the undamaged arm.
Continue reading ‘Robotic Rehab for a Paralyzed Arm’
medGadget recently posted a brief article about the HAL-5 exoskeleton, a Japanese invention that looks like Matsushita’s robotic arm on steriods (and with a few limbs added). The HAL-5 is also a wearable robotic device, intended particularly to give health care workers greater strength for lifting. There’s a link to an earlier medGadget article, as well as one to the original post at Engadget (English).
