QTrobot, pronounced “cutie robot,” was developed by the Luxembourgian company LuxAI and introduced to early adopters back in 2018. It is a expressive and engaging humanoid robot designed to assist in teaching autistic children essential social skills. One may think: “How can a robot help in the management of a condition characteri (Read more...)
Tag: Rehab
Custom Tuned Hearing Aids from Comfort of Home: Interview with Adam Karp and Dr. Harvey Abrams of Lively
Lively, a New York-based hearing aid provider, has recently announced their online platform for customers to take virtual hearing tests, purchase hearing aids, and receive videocall support from doctors to fine-tune their hearing aids. The platform represents a telemedicine solution for the hearing-impaired, and allows people to receive treatment f (Read more...)
Innovative Skin to Electrically Power Prosthetic Devices
Powered prosthetic devices need a great deal of electricity to energize them throughout the day. Researchers at the University of Glasgow in Scotland have developed a combination electronic “skin” that can generate and store electricity for prosthetic devices. The technology consists of layers of a finely tuned graphite-polyurethane com (Read more...)
Highly Dexterous Prosthetic Arm Gives Users Sensations
A woman in Sweden became the first person in the world to receive an osseo-neuromuscular hand prosthesis that is impressively accurate and that can even transmit sensations back to its user. The device is integrated with the patient’s remaining natural arm unlike anything else out there. It is the culmination of the DeTOP (Dexterous Transradi (Read more...)
BrainRobotics Introduces a Modular Smart Prosthetic Hand: Seen at CES 2019
At CES 2019, a company called BrainRobotics was showing off what looked like a pretty impressive powered hand prostheses. It has individually movable fingers, which rely on eight separate EMG channels that sense remaining muscle movement for activation. Machine learning algorithms are supposedly in action within the device to regulate the hand&rsqu (Read more...)
Google’s Live Transcribe and Sound Amplifier to Make Communications Easier for Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Deaf people and others who have trouble hearing are constantly finding themselves in situations in which communicating with other fellow humans is a challenge. Gesturing and writing things down on paper is simple, but slow and frustrating. Google, a part of Alphabet, is hoping to change that with a couple new tools that will be […]
Machine Learning Powered Wearable Soft Robot for Patients with Limited Hand Mobility
Researchers in South Korea have developed a wearable soft robotic device that assists patients with impaired hand mobility to grasp and release objects. The researchers devised a machine-learning algorithm to predict user intentions, which helps patients to use the device more intuitively. By receiving input from a camera mounted on the user’ (Read more...)
University of Witzwatersrand and Xsens Model The Biomechanics of a Paralympian
Biomechanics is complex. The body moves in a three-dimensional space, pulling and rotating. We see athletes perform stunning movement combinations on TV in a variety of sports. A basketball player pivots, fades back, and fires a three-pointer. A badminton player jumps, twists, and snaps their arm and racket like a whip onto a shuttlecock. A [&helli (Read more...)
Scientists Translate Brain Signals Into Speech
Our brain signals are a window into our souls. More broadly, brain-computer interfaces that read those signals and accompanying algorithms that process the signals are the windows. Researchers at Columbia University have been working on trying to understand what our brains are thinking about, and in particular interpreting the signals produced by t (Read more...)
Reinforcement Learning System Automatically Trains Prosthetic Legs
Powered leg prostheses can give amputees the ability to walk for long periods of time and to do so briskly. The reality is that these devices are pretty clunky and programming them to operate smoothly to produce a natural gait takes hours, and the results are rarely perfect. Scientists at North Carolina State University, the […]
URGONight EEG Headband Trains Your Brain to Sleep Better: Seen at CES 2019
We all know the feeling: setting our alarm and trying to fall asleep, only to recognize that the brain has a different plan and refuses to calm down. Therefore, we end up tossing and turning, checking the time every 10 minutes to see how long we have left before we have to get up, and […]
ActivForce Digital Dynanometer for Objective Arm Muscle Evaluation
ActivBody, a company headquartered in San Diego, California, is releasing an interesting digital dynanometer, which measures the power applied to it, for use in training, rehab, and other cases. The ActivForce device works with the company’s Active5 force measurement device and gives clinicians objective data when assessing muscle ability of (Read more...)
Boston Sci’s Vercise Gevia Deep Brain Stimulators for Parkinson’s Now Available in U.S.
Boston Scientific is releasing its Vercise Primary Cell (PC) and Vercise Gevia deep brain stimulation (DBS) systems in the U.S. Both have received recent FDA approval to be used in managing symptoms of Parkinson’s, as well as European regulatory clearance for Parkinson’s, dystonia, and essential tremor. The devices featur (Read more...)
New InMotion ARM/HAND for Post Stroke Rehab Unveiled
BIONIK Laboratories, a company based in Toronto, Canada, is releasing a new version of its InMotion ARM/HAND robotic system for stroke rehab training. The system is used for intensive motor therapy, consisting of two robots that work together to train reaching and grasp & release movements at the same time. The user is asked to perform [&h (Read more...)
VisualCamp Headset Eye Tracking at CES 2019
Head-worn displays, including ones for virtual reality and augmented reality, are becoming common in medicine. They’re already used to superimpose planning images on the patient’s body during surgery, to teach students how to perform procedures, and to analyze clinical data like never before. While they’re already amazingly cool, (Read more...)
Optimal-G Pro Robotic Gait Rehab System Unveiled
Motorika, a company out of Mount Laurel, New Jersey, is introducing its Optimal-G Pro robotic walking rehabilitation system at the American Physical Therapy Association’s Combined Sessions Meeting this week in Washington DC. The device helps to train the walking gait of people who have suffered from a variety of neurological, (Read more...)
DFree Ultrasound Device Sends Notifications of Bladder Status to Your Phone: CES 2019
Urinary incontinence is a common malady, and one that is affecting more people every year due to the growing aging population. There are number of products available to treat urinary incontinence, depending on its cause and type. At CES 2019 we learned of a new ultrasound device that can sense the size of a person’s […]
Philips Presents Its Sleep Technologies at CES 2019
Philips is now a pure medical technology company. You may see their brand on other products still, such as TVs, but that’s all produced by other manufacturers. Though it’s focused on medicine, Philips is actively involved in the personal healthcare space, and particularly in sleep. The firm has everything from sleep trackers, wake up li (Read more...)
Cochlear Nucleus 7 Cochlear Implant: Seen at CES 2019
Cochlear Limited attended the CES for the first time this year, showcasing a virtual reality demo and an opportunity to speak with implant recipients. They showcased their Nucleus 7 Implant and Sound Processor, which the company released last year as the world’s first made-for-iPhone cochlear implant sound processor (read our coverage here). (Read more...)
Gyrolift, a Standing Wheelchair Hoverboard: CES 2019
People have been working on improving wheelchairs probably soon after wheels were invented. Advanced computers and sensing systems can turbo-charge mobility devices in surprising ways, something we’re always happy to cover here at Medgadget. On our tour of the latest gadgetry at CES 2019 in Las Vegas, we were excited to learn of Gyrolift, a [ (Read more...)