Medgadget

Tactile Sensors Expand Ability of Prosthetic Technology

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:02 -0800

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Italy are continuing development of the Smart Hand prosthesis that features sensors and a feedback mechanism to bring feeling to patients equipped with the device. The prosthesis uses severed nerves as a channel for controlling motion and for sending sensory information from fingertips back to the brain.

Here's a look from the BBC of the Smart Hand system:

New Intel Device Helps Overcome Problems With Reading, Learning

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:03 -0800

Intel has released a new gadget for people with vision problems, autism, dyslexia, and other conditions that can make reading difficult. With the Intel Reader you can take pictures of book pages, letters, and product labels and the device will read out the text back while showing magnified print on the screen. While designed to be used by people with certain disabilities, we can also see using this device to learn how to read a new language.

The Intel Reader, about the size of a paperback book, converts printed text to digital text, and then reads it aloud to the user. Its unique design combines a high-resolution camera with the power of an Intel® Atom™ processor, allowing users to point, shoot and listen to printed text.

When the Intel Reader is used together with the Intel® Portable Capture Station, large amounts of text, such as a chapter or an entire book, can be easily captured for reading later. Users will have convenient and flexible access to a variety of printed materials, helping to not only increase their freedom, but improve their productivity and efficiency at school, work and home. The Intel Reader has been endorsed by the International Dyslexia Association as an important advance in assistive technology. Additionally, Intel is working with the Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs, the Council for Exceptional Children, Lighthouse International, the National Center for Learning Disabilities and the National Federation of the Blind to help reach and address the needs of people who have difficulty reading print.

Press release: Ready, Set, Read: Intel® Reader Transforms Printed Text to Spoken Word ...

Product page: Intel Reader ...

Freedom Leg Replaces Crutches for Easier Mobility

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:39:05 -0800

Everyone hates having to use crutches after a leg injury, so a company that started as a bicycle manufacturer and recently evolved into medical mobility products thinks it's got the answer. The Freedom Leg from Forward Mobility out of Edmonds, Washington transfers the weight of the body to the upper leg, completely relieving the injured area from strain. Made out of composite materials, the device has a weight of only 2.6 pounds (1.2 kilo).

Go beyond the limitations of crutches, wheelchairs or scooters. It is truly an off-loading prosthetic that allows the user to fully integrate the device into their lives, giving them complete mobility. The user has the ability to accomplish all their normal day to day tasks without assistance, while at the same time keeping the strength in upper muscles of the injured leg.

Product page: Freedom Leg...

AlterG M300 Trainer Takes The Strain Off Fragile Joints

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:33:44 -0800

Being able to drop half your body weight for a run can take quite a bit of strain off your joints. People recovering from surgery or injuries can use the AlterG (Fremont, California) treadmill to do just that and get a good workout for their lower extremities muscles. The device is able to continuously pump air into a cavity enclosing the legs and helps lift a person a bit, thereby reducing effective weight. AlterG just released a new model, the M300, which costs a third of their previous unit, features the same technology, and looks pretty damn slick.

Control unweighting from 100% to as low as 20% in 1% increments

Allows full range of motion for upper and lower body

Natural gait mechanics promote improved balance and strengthening

Keeps user in place, supports laterally and prevents falls

Highly comfortable at any level of partial weight-bearing for prolonged exercise

Accommodates a wide range of body types (90 - 400 lbs)

Easy-to-use controls for decrease/increase in body weight, speed and incline.

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Press release: AlterG's Revolutionary Anti-Gravity Treadmill(R) Reaches a Wider Audience With the New M300 Series...

Flashback: G-Trainer Weight Reducing Treadmill Approved as Medgadget by FDA

The Power Loader Exoskeleton

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:05:39 -0800

The Japanese are continuing to develop robotic devices that want to solve problems that don't really exist. Here's a force-feedback enabled exoskeleton that Gizmodo describes as a "dual-arm power amplification robot" that "uses 18 electromagnetic motors that let the wearer lift 220lbs without blinking."

More from Gizmodo: Power Loader Exoskeleton Gives Superhuman Strength...

Carrier: A New Concept for Wheelchair Design

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:10:23 -0800

Students at the University of Applied Arts Vienna have developed a novel powered wheelchair design that may overcome some of the limitations of contemporary models. For a start, the chair can glide over a toilet and, thanks to a hatch on the bottom, no one has to perform acrobatic tricks in the loo. The chair also articulates and provides a power lift to help reach things that are higher up. Additionally, a novel combination of treads and wheels allows riding up and down stairs, though we would like to see a final product that can actually pull this off.

The CARRIER is an advanced wheelchair for handicapped and temporary disabled people. It has multiple features, that make it more usable than a regular wheelchair and gives the user a chance to spend the day as usually as without a wheelchair.
A big problem for handicapped people is the toilet, thats why the CARRIER is able to go directly over standard toilets and open the seat, so the user doesn't have to get off the wheelchair. To go over stairs it uses the special 'Galileo Wheel' that combines the handling advantages of an ordinary wheel and climbing ability of a track drive. The last function to allow a maximum of freedom is the upstanding position mode, which gives the user the chance to reach higher objects, or talk to standing people on the same eye level. In addition the backrest can be folded away and the height is adjustable for easier seat change.

Link: Carrier robotic wheelchair

(hat tip: Yanko Design)

Smart Robotic Hand May Improve Prosthetic Design

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:03 -0800

Robotics engineers from Harvard and Yale universities teamed up to create an interesting new robotic hand that can manipulate things in a gentle human-like way. Because every object needs to be grabbed uniquely, so as to be able to pick it up while not damaging it with a wrong grip or too hard of a squeeze, the system uses a smart sensing platform to actively adjust the fingers. Clearly this technology could find good use in robotic surgical systems, or in making hand prostheses easier and more natural to operate.

Technology Review reports:

Dollar's [Aaron Dollar, assistant professor at Yale University --ed.] robotic hand consists of four fingers made out of a flexible, durable polymer. A single motor and spool tugs on the finger joints to open and close the hand. Each soft polymer finger contains embedded sensors, as detailed in the August 2009 online issue of Autonomous Robots. Dollar embedded two piezoelectric sensors--which report physical contact as a voltage response--into each of the four fingers through a molding process called shape deposition manufacturing (SDM). This process allows different materials to be deposited one layer at a time, so that sensors or other items can be set inside the material, which also protects those components.
The system currently employs only one type of grasp--the "power" grip, which is useful for picking up some objects, such as a soda can, a ball, or a hammer. Next, Dollar hopes to add a "precision" grip, to enable the hand to pick up smaller objects, such as a pen.

More at Technology Review...

Cheap and Simple Braille Labeler

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:01:27 -0800

MIT engineering students have developed a labeling device to help identify just about anything by blind people. If you're not blind, just imagine sorting through a CD or record collection without being able to see.

A team of MIT students in last fall's Product Engineering Processes (2.009) class searched for a better way. They came up with a prototype device that is small and easily portable, can produce the entire panoply of possible Braille characters (including commonly used two-character contractions), and can be relatively easily loaded and operated by touch. Although it is still under development, they hope the device, which they have named the 6dot Braille Labeler, can ultimately be produced for sale at around $200.
Some of the students continued to refine the product after the class ended, producing an improved version that won a $7,500 prize in the spring IDEAS competition (a joint project of the MIT Public Service Center and the Edgerton Center that recognizes innovations that benefit communities worldwide). Eight students from the mechanical engineering department, some who graduated in June and others who are still enrolled, joined by two others, are in the process of forming a company to continue development of the labeler. Over the summer they conducted field tests around the country with 25 potential users of the product, giving each about a half-hour to work with the device.

The battery-operated 6dot device uses standard Dymo label tape, and has a built-in microprocessor that can store up to 16 characters in case the user types faster than the device can emboss the tape. It has six buttons across the top — one for each of the six dots in that make up a Braille character — that can be operated by placing two hands on the unit's top, very much like touch-typing. The device makes sounds as it embosses each character, providing some auditory feedback to confirm that it's working.

When the label is finished, the user activates a built-in blade to cut the label off. Ultimately, the developers plan to add another blade that will score the end of the tape to make it easier to peel off the backing, but that has proved more difficult to achieve than they had anticipated.

They're also working on simplifying the system for loading and unloading a roll of tape to make that easier to do by touch. Right now, "it's a little more challenging than we'd like it to be," Pikhart says. They hope to make it as easy as loading and ejecting a VHS tape cartridge.

MIT press release: Braille made simple...

Japanese Firm Touts New Three Wheeled, Powered Wheelchair

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:44:36 -0800

Japanese engineers from Veda International Robot R&D Center have unveiled a new motorized wheelchair that features a forward leaning posture and looks like it could be on a race track.

Here's a quick video of the wheelchair in motion:

More at Veda Center Blog...

With BrainPort Vision Technology One Day The Blind May See The World With The Tongue

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:03 -0800

Wicab, Inc out of Middleton, Wisconsin is developing a device that converts visual images into electrical signals that are fed to a user's tongue via a special "lollipop". A special electrode panel of the lollipop essentially draws images on the tongue by firing electric pulses on some of the pixels and not others, supposedly producing a feeling similar to a carbonated beverage.

Check out the device in this video:

In United States, the BrainPort Vision Device has not yet been submitted to the FDA, hence it is not available for sale. It remains limited to investigational uses only.

BrainPort Vision Technology...

Device info page: BrainPort Vision ...

(hat tip: Engadget)