Rehab Archive

Thursday, November 20, 2008

LegLifter Helps You Get In Bed

New Zealand company Multifit Hospital Supplies has developed an\ device that helps the elderly and the disabled get into bed by assisting them to move their legs from sitting to lying position.

The company is demonstrating its LegLifter at the ongoing Medica 2008 conference in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The video below demonstrates the mechanics.

Product page: Multifit LegLifter

Multifit company profile at Medica 2008...

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Thursday, November 13, 2008

CoreTx for Stroke Rehab

CoreTx is a nifty wireless device that is intended to be used by stroke victims to help restore controlled limb movement. Working with gyroscopic technology similar to the one inside of a Nintendo Wii controller, the unit tracks the precision and speed of a limb's movement and provides feedback to the user.

Core:Tx® is a software and hardware system that interfaces with a patient, giving him or her real-time feedback on the position and movement of selected joints. At the same time this system provides the clinician with valuable objective data on the patient’s performance and abilities.

Used under the guidance of a therapist or healthcare professional, Core:Tx turns rehabilitation into a wireless, game-like challenge that is entertaining and works for a variety of patients recovering from neuromuscular conditions as well as joint injuries. The Core:Tx system is compatible with and enhances existing rehabilitation, preventative and strengthening protocols.

CoreTx product page...

CoreTx Professional user manual (.pdf)...

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Monday, November 10, 2008

Game Ready Hand Wrap for Rapid Rehab

Game Ready, a company out of Alameda, California, that specializes in high tech anatomic wraps designed to deliver adjustable cold therapy coupled with pneumatic compressions, has introduced a novel device for post operative rehabilitation. The Hand Wrap, as the unit is called, will apply cooling to the wrist as well as controlled pressure to help with pain, to help promote healing, according to the company.

From the product page:

The Hand Wrap’s simple rectangular shape and adjustable straps mean you can use the Wrap flat against your entire hand or fold and bend the Wrap around a specific area. The Velcro®-style hook-and-loop closures adhere to Wrap sleeve for proper fit. Position Wrap on your hand in desired configuration, blue side facing in. Stretch the straps around hand and comfortably secure.
Simply fill the Game Ready Control Unit with ice and water. Put the Hand Wrap on, connect it to the Control Unit, adjust the pressure, temperature, and timer settings, and press Start.

Press release: Game Ready(TM) Announces New Hand Treatment ...

Product page: GAME READY HAND WRAP ...

Product user manual (PDF)...

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Friday, November 7, 2008

Honda Makes Public New Robotic Walking Assist Device

Honda is clearly committed to robotic assist devices for the elderly and patients with neurological disorders as they announce their second iteration of a walking assist machine that automatically adds strength into patient's step. Looking back on the last version, Honda went ahead and extended the concept in the new device to help with lifting of the legs, and supporting of body weight, not just adding energy to the step at the hip.

Key features of the yet to be named device from Honda:

1. Convenient sitting-type device

· The user simply needs to wear the shoes and raise the seat into place.

· The user can benefit from the assist without need of a belt to fasten the device to their body.

· The structure to position the device between the user's legs minimizes the required footprint, therefore making it easier for them to maneuver.

2. Method to assist bodyweight support

· The device will support a portion of the person's bodyweight by lifting the seat as the frame between the shoe and seat bends and extends, just like knees, with the force from the motor. As a result, the load on leg muscles and joints (in the hip, knees, and ankles) is reduced.

· Honda developed a unique mechanism where the seat and frame follow the movement of the body and legs. The assisting force will be directed toward the user's center of gravity, just as with human legs, which enables the device to provide assistance in various movements and postures including walking, going up and down stairs, and in a semi-crouching position.

3. Natural control of the assisting force

· Natural walking is achieved by changing the amount of assisting force applied to the right and left legs through the control of two motors based on the information obtained though sensors imbedded in the shoes of the device.

· The effectiveness of the device was increased in those motions and postures which put increased load on knees, such as going up and down stairs and in a semi-crouching position. This was achieved by adjusting the assisting force in accordance with the bending and stretching motion of the knees.

Key specifications of experimental walking assist device with bodyweight support system

Weight 6.5kg (including shoes and batteries)
Drive system Motor X 2
Battery pack Lithium ion battery
Operating time per charge 2 hours (including walking and in a semi-crouching posture, etc.)
Suitable height of the user Within plus or minus 5cm of the set height
(Example: set height for Medium size is 170cm)

Press release: Honda Unveils Experimental Walking Assist Device With Bodyweight Support System ...

Flashbacks: Honda Walking Assist Device Update: Feasibility Testing ; Walking Assistant From Honda ; Mystery Robotic Assist Walking Device

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Monday, November 3, 2008

Video: Brain Computer Interface Works as Virtual Hands on a Virtual Keyboard

CBS's 60 Minutes show profiled a brain computer interface device developed by Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw at New York State's Dept. of Health Wadsworth Center, which allows people to write text on the computer purely by thinking of letters one at a time.

Here's the video report:

Friday, October 24, 2008

Robodog, The Best Friend of The Future

Georgia Tech researchers are building a robotic assistance dog that can emulate the actions of the real kind, and have identified and taught the machine to do simple but critical tasks like opening doors and drawers, and bringing items to a table.

From Georgia Tech:

Users verbally command the robot to complete a task and the robot responds once a basic laser pointer illuminates the location of the desired action.

For instance, if a person needs an item fetched, that individual would normally command a service dog to do so and then gesture with their hands toward the location. The service robot mimics the process, with the hand gesture replaced by aiming the laser pointer at the desired item.

Employing this technology, users can accomplish basic yet challenging missions such as opening doors, drawers and retrieving medication.

“It’s a road to get robots out there helping people sooner,” said Professor Charlie Kemp, Georgia Tech Department of Biomedical Engineering. “Service dogs have a great history of helping people, but there’s a multi-year waiting list. It’s a very expensive thing to have. We think robots will eventually help to meet those needs.”

Kemp and graduate student Hai Nguyen worked closely with the team of trainers at Georgia Canines for Independence (GCI) in Acworth, Ga. to research the command categories and interaction that is core to the relationship between individuals and service dogs.

Betty, a Golden Retriever, was studied to understand her movements and relationship with commands. Key to the success is Betty’s ability to work with a towel attached to a drawer or door handle, which allows her to use her mouth for such actions as opening and closing. The robot was then successfully programmed to use the towel in a similar manner.

Press release: Robotic Technology Inspired by Service Dogs

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Thursday, October 9, 2008

HAL, The One That Walks, Goes on Sale

Cyberdyne out of Tsukuba, Japan is making its power assist robosuit, dubbed Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL), available as a rental to Japanese patients suffering from neuromuscular disorders, and to those who simply have difficulty walking.

From a press release:

The special suit was developed by Yoshiyuki Sankai, professor at the University of Tsukuba and Chief Executive Officer of Cyberdyne, the university's spin-off firm.
The suit, called Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL, aids wearers by detecting electrical signals on the skin that are sent from the brain to the muscles, and responding accordingly.

The one- and two-legged models currently available are designed to help people with lower-body disabilities to walk.

Cyberdyne also intends to commercialize a full-body model in April at the earliest that will enable the wearer to lift heavy objects or even people.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Stuck in a Cast? MyoSpare Wants to Exercise Your Unused Muscles

Anyone who's ever wore a cast after breaking an arm or leg knows that muscles not used for a month or so become rather pathetic looking, and lack much of their original strength. An Israeli company called StimuHeal Inc. is working on embedding electrical stimulators inside casts to exercise the immobile muscles.

From Israel21C:

Now available in Europe and Israel, MyoSpare takes advantage of the downtime period when the adult or senior body is inactive and healing from an injury.
Using existing equipment on the market, StimuHeal identified the technical and clinical limitations of activating the muscles underneath casts using Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES), a well-recognized tool in the American healthcare system.

If electrodes were to be inserted under the cast, the company recognized, prolonged sweating would be a problem. They also had to develop the perfect stimulation regime so the lactic acid and CO2 wouldn't build up in the muscles, causing pain and discomfort. StimuHeal solved this by developing a microprocessor that calculates a cycle for the muscles to rest.

Not only will the MyoSpare device cut down on physiotherapy costs, it will radically help people return to their former selves after a serious debilitating injury. Other devices exist on the market to aid in muscle stimulation, but the MyoSpare is the only one developed for use under a cast when the body is healing, the company says.

To stay competitive, StimuHeal hopes to be able to sell MyoSpare in the United States for about $300, once it gets the FDA seal of approval. This should happen sometime in the next year.

Friday, September 19, 2008

A Wheelchair With Ears and Brain

At MIT researchers are working on a self-navigating wheelchair that can learn the geography around it through simple voice commands, and then travel around using the map created within its computer brain.

Unlike other attempts to program wheelchairs or other mobile devices, which rely on an intensive process of manually capturing a detailed map of a building, the MIT system can learn about its environment in much the same way as a person would: By being taken around once on a guided tour, with important places identified along the way. For example, as the wheelchair is pushed around a nursing home for the first time, the patient or a caregiver would say: "this is my room" or "here we are in the foyer" or "nurse's station."
Outdoors in the open, such systems can rely on GPS receivers to figure out where they are, but inside buildings that method usually doesn't work, so other approaches are needed. Roy and Teller have been exploring the use of WiFi signals, as well as wide-field cameras and laser rangefinders, coupled to computer systems that can construct and localize within an internal map of the environment as they move around.

For now, the wheelchair prototype relies on a WiFi system to make its maps and then navigate through them, which requires setting up a network of WiFi nodes around the facility in advance. After months of preliminary tests on campus, they have begun trials in a real nursing home environment with real patients, at the Boston Home in Dorchester, a facility where all of the nearly 100 patients have partial or substantial loss of muscle control and use wheelchairs.

Press release: Robot wheelchair finds its own way...

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Friday, September 12, 2008

The Luke Arm at All Things D

Back in June we featured a short video of Dean Kamen showing off the Luke Arm at the All Things Digital conference. Some think that it is the most advanced prosthetic device ever developed. Finally, the organizers of the conference have made the full appearance of Dean Kamen available for your pleasure:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

(hat tip: Gizmodo)

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Tuesday, September 9, 2008

More Aesthetics for Your Prosthetic

Francesca Lanzavecchia, a recent graduate of the Design Academy of Eindhoven, has been focusing on the aesthetics of prosthesis, as well as their ergonomics, to change the way we see and feel about these medical devices. Above you see a sexy female back brace and a neck brace meant to support a cell phone for hands free operation.

Lighter Robo Legs Thanks to Energy Recycling

At Oregon State and Carnegie Mellon Universities folks are building robotic legs that recycle energy stored when the leg is bent, just like animals do. Apparently humans are able to naturally recycle about 40% of the energy in a springy step. If this can be accomplished in artificial legs, then the motors and batteries will not have to be quite as large and heavy, making life easier for developers and potential future users of the technologies, such as exoskeletons and other assistive devices.

Here's a video from NewScientist demonstrating the robotic springy leg:

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

A2B Tricycle for Disabled Children

Shabtai Hirshberg from School of Practical Engineering at Hadassah College Jerusalem designed this trike to encourage physical activity among kids suffering from neurological or muscular disorders. Yanko Design, the most excellent design blog, explains how the device works:

Conceived after visiting a children's hospital in Jerusalem, designer Shabtai Hirshberg created the A2B trike so disabled kids could mount and ride by themselves. When a child mounts the trike, stepping on the pedal locks the wheels, enabling the child to literally walk right into a seated position. The chest support keeps the child stabilized, and the whole trike can be customized to each child's needs.The gear based rear wheel makes it easy for the child to pedal since less force is required to drive the system. The entire steering shaft is cable driven so very small movements translate into larger ones.
If you're wondering why disabled children are riding trikes, it's more than a recreational activity. Hospitals around the world use it for rehabilitation, promoting independence, muscle development, and balance.

Yanko Design: Trike for Disabled Tikes...

Project page: A2B trike...

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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Virtual Reality Walking Motivator

Wendy Powell, a PhD student in the School of Creative Technologies at the University of Portsmouth has created a walking simulator that works in conjunction with a treadmill to fool the walker into believing he or she is walking slower. The idea is to motivate the physical therapy patients to speed up.

Clinical trials on real patients are taking place in collaboration with experts at the renowned McGill University in Canada where early results are encouraging.
A former chiropractor, Wendy, hopes it will pave the way for a new and innovative approach to physiotherapy.

She said: “The virtual system encourages patients to walk more quickly and for longer, almost without them realising it. We’re effectively fooling the brain and the body.

The environment is stimulating and entertaining and there’s less fear of falling over. Our test subjects are usually surprised when I tell them they’ve improved by up to 20 per cent.”

Wendy hopes that the system will also help older stoke patients who often find traditional approaches to improving their speed and distance difficult because it relies very much on self-motivation.

She said: “After a stroke or fall many older people lack motivation and confidence and they don’t feel steady on their feet so getting out and about can be an issue and they can find the whole process rather dull.”

Wendy’s system uses a variety of different images from urban landscapes to forest and mountain scenes. She has built a system of rewards into some of the programmes, which encourages the patient to pick up objects and collect points. She said that older people were not at all put off by the ‘computer game’ element but seemed to enjoy it.

Press release: Virtual reality set to transform physiotherapy

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Thursday, August 7, 2008

Neuro-Eye Therapy, a Vision Training Program, Improves Sight of Stroke Victims

At the University of Aberdeen in Scotland a new program has been setup to help restore vision in patients that lost part of their ability to see due to a stroke.

From the press release:

Dr Arash Sahraie, Reader in Visual Neuroscience at the University of Aberdeen, explained: "The basic principles behind Neuro-Eye Therapy are similar to those of physiotherapy following a stroke. If muscles are affected following brain injury, patients are asked to repeat a pattern of limb movements in order to improve their mobility.
"In the same way, after daily use of the Vision Rehabilitation ProgramTM over a six month period, patients have reported an improvement in their sight as well as a range of other benefits, including being able to get about more easily, both inside and outside their homes, and finding reading much less of a struggle."

"The device used in Neuro-Eye Therapy is simple to set up in the home or office and requires no prior expertise or experience of computer use," said Dr Sahraie.

"The daily task involves looking at a computer screen and deciding whether or not an image is presented within the blind area by pressing a button. Initially patients can only guess whether the image was presented, but over time patients experience an improvement in their vision."

University of Aberdeen: Ground breaking eye therapy for stroke victims developed...

Program page: Vision Rehabilitation Programme...

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Monday, July 28, 2008

Force-feedback Offerings from Haption

Via a press release from Virtalis Ltd , a consultancy out of Manchester, UK, we learn about a French company Haption S.A. that is trying to expand the use of its haptic technologies in the medical market, such as for surgical training, rehab, etc.

According to Virtalis,

The Haption range encompasses a small, desktop device with a translational workspace within a sphere of diameter of 120 mm and rotational workspace of 35O in three directions. Top of the range is the Virtuose 6D35-45, which was designed for the 1:1 scale manipulation of virtual objects and has a massive transational workspace up to a sphere of diameter of 450 mm and can exert forces up to 35 N. All Haption products can be easily integrated into Virtalis StereoWorks installations, so that the Haption device is linked to 3D stereo projection in a fully tracked virtual environment.

Aside from engineering applications, Haption is finding new customers in the kinehaptic field where patients overcome their injuries by practicing their fine motor skills. Surgeons who need to stay within a tightly controlled operating envelope represent another important market for haptics. So do nuclear engineers, whose complex operations when dealing with several robots carrying out specialized dismantling and decommissioning work, have found themselves benefiting greatly from virtual force feedback. In hazardous environments, being able to create the physics of an object, practice manipulating it, optimize the movement path and then record that path, has proved to be invaluable.

If you want to check out the brochure for the Virtuose 6D35-45 device, here it is (.pdf)...

Haption company page...

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Friday, July 25, 2008

Copying Nature for More Convincing Prosthesis

An EU funded project called SENSOPAC, which aims to develop new artificial robotic limbs, has been mimicking nature to take advantage of what has essentially stood the test of time. The newly built arm in many ways copies the human arm, and the developers are building a microchip brain that they hope to model on certain aspects of ours.

To mimic the skin’s sensing capabilities, researchers at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), guided by physiology results from Umeå University, in Sweden, created a thin flexible material filled with a form of carbon whose resistance changes with pressure. This approach let them combine information from sensors in different parts of the skin in order to minimise the number of information-carrying wires.
“We can soon integrate hundreds of detector elements and get the information out with just five wires,” says van der Smagt [Patrick van der Smagt, coordinator of SENSOPAC --ed.]. “And we have the ability to distinguish between shape, the amount of force, and the direction of force.”

The human arm and hand can generate and control a remarkable range of force, from the delicate touch of a watchmaker to the power of a javelin thrower. Much of this range of force and finesse comes from the pairs of opposing muscles that control each joint.

Researchers at DLR took the same approach. The artificial arm they built and are now experimenting with uses a total of 58 motors in opposing pairs, coupled with non-linear springs, to control the arm.

The hand they have built is closely modelled on the human hand. It can snap its fingers, pick up an egg or carry a cup of coffee. Its fingers are moved by 38 opposing motors.

The researchers are currently using software to simulate important aspects of how the cerebellum processes and integrates information.

“It’s the first neural-network-based controller that can control the dynamics of a robotic system in its full operational range,” says van der Smagt.

In the next six months, they will be seeing how well this system can learn to control the arm.

Press release: Meet Robo habilis...

(hat tip: Gizmodo)

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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

A Slam-Dunk Design for a Wheelchair

When they were students at the University of Illinois, Ricky Biddle, Eric Larson and Ben Shao decided to do something for the disabled athletes involved in wheelchair basketball. This sport is inherently dangerous, and injuries resulting from collisions are frequent. The other intrinsic problem is the need for participants to use hands not only to dribble the ball but to control the wheelchair. So the three chaps teamed up with Austin Cliffe, another designer, and have come up with a prototype Balance Sport Wheelchair, now Gold winner of the 2008 International Design Excellence Award in Medical & Scientific Concepts category.

Ricky Biddle gave us the following explanation:

The design solution uses a braking system that is activated by the user’s movements in an intuitive way. To turn, the player leans in the desired direction. To stop, the player simply leans back.
Every athlete is different. Add a wheelchair to the equation and these disparities multiply exponentially. On top of size differences, personal preferences and so on, wheelchair athletes also have different injuries and unique challenges and mobility limitations associated with their injury. This meant designing a solution that would meet the needs of people with varying levels of skills and abilities.

After testing simple mechanisms and methods of braking, it became clear that the brakes and the leaning mechanism would have to be extremely flexible and be able to be tuned to accommodating the various needs and preferences of players. Disc brakes allow for adjustability that is as simple as turning a dial and for independent adjustment of the left and right wheels. The disc brake system isolates most of the contributing variables of what could be a complicated braking system into two small, easily adjustable units.

The designers spent a great deal of time and effort addressing the points of rotation to find the optimal ergonomic solution. In an attempt to aid players with mobility only from the shoulder up, the left-to-right point of rotation was placed at the middle of the back in prototypes, but it quickly became apparent that this solution was too sensitive. A very slight lean could cause the brakes to engage suddenly, and players with limited means to control their leaning would be jostled around in a jerky turn. What should have been one smooth action became several shorter brake, brake, brake motions. After many attempts to dial this in, it became apparent such a short throw was more of a detriment than an aid to players with low mobility. We observed that left-to-right leaning by athletes with greater mobility involved a shifting of weight from one buttocks cheek to the other. This resulted in a linkage type of rotation, rather than the one-point center rotation that we had considered. We placed two pivot points under the seat. The longer throw also results in a less touchy mechanism, giving players of all abilities a smoother lean/turn braking operation. Two points of left and right rotation add further to the adjustable resistance of the leaning resistance.

The leaning of the seat back to actuate the brakes also allows for adjustable resistance for athletes of different abilities. Player with little mobility can set a high resistance of their seat’s lean and adjust their brake resistance to allow very slight movement to give them the desired braking and turning response. Players with more mobility, on the other hand, may prefer a looser setting to allow their upper body to move more freely and fluidly without inadvertently braking or turning.

If you would like to learn more about the wheelchair, Ricky Biddle's contact info can be found here...

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Monday, July 21, 2008

Video of ReWalk Exoskeleton System

Israel21C has a video of the ReWalk exoskeleton system, from Argo Medical Technologies, for people with paralyzed legs. We profiled the system back in March, and we thought this video would be interesting to see the device in action:

From Israel21C:

ReWalk comprises a light wearable brace support suit which integrates DC motors at the joint, rechargeable batteries, an array of sensors and a computer-based control system. It fits the body snugly to detect upper body movements, which are used to initiate and maintain the walking process. Wearers also use crutches for stability and safety.
ReWalk is undergoing clinical trials in Israel at the Rehabilitation Hospital at Chaim Sheba Medical Center - Tel Hashomer, with pilots planned for rehab centers in Holland and Italy. A US trial is scheduled to begin in November at the Moss Rehabilitation Center in Philadelphia, after which Argo will apply for FDA regulatory approval.

Argo's demo video features team member Radi Kioff, a 40-year-old Druze Israeli citizen who was shot in the back while serving in the Israel Defense Forces during the first Lebanon War. Ironically, the man who devised the system that allows Kioff to walk cannot benefit from his own invention. A quadriplegic, Amit Goffer has only partial use of his hands, but not enough to operate the ReWalk.

More at ISRAEL21c...

Product page: ReWalk

Flashback: ReWalk Exoskeleton

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