Many of the technologies that have changed the lives of healthy consumers over the past couple of decades have done little to improve the lives of those with disabilities. Yet, a number of developments, such as smartphones and GPS devices, have truly helped out those who are blind, for example. A new article in The […]
Tag: Rehab
asEars Assists People With Single-Sided Deafness – With Style!
Last month at South by Southwest (SXSW), we came across a team of students from the University of Tokyo who were in Austin, Texas to demo their prototype glasses for people with unilateral hearing loss. Called “asEars”, these high-tech and stylish glasses consist of a tiny microphone in the upper rim on the side of […]
Augmented Reality App to Help Parkinson’s Patients Improve Their Walk
Bioengineering students at Rice University have developed a smartphone app that may help people with Parkinson’s disease to improve their walking gait. These patients are combating a common phenomenon known as freezing, in which the legs take random pauses contrary to how the brain wishes them to move. Because previous studies demonstrated th (Read more...)
Robotic Brace Characterizes Spine Deformities, Dynamically Adjusts Therapy
Engineers at Columbia University have developed a dynamic spine brace, called the Robotic Spine Exoskeleton (RoSE), that can measure the stiffness of the human torso in three dimensions and apply corrective pressure in patients with spine deformities, such as idiopathic scoliosis. Children with spinal deformities typically wear braces to help corre (Read more...)
Specially Designed Virtual Reality Game Distracts Kids from Blood Draws
At Rigshospitale, a Danish hospital for patients requiring specialized treatments, kids that fear syringes are barely aware that their blood is being taken. This is thanks to a virtual reality game developed by Khora, a nearby virtual and augmented reality production firm. The Ballade på Badebroen (Trouble on The Jetty) game was the resu (Read more...)
IrisVision for Low Vision: Interview with Ammad Khan, CEO and Frank Werblin, Chief Scientist and Inventor
IrisVision, a medtech company based in California, have developed a low-cost visual aid system for people with low vision. The system currently harnesses the power of a Samsung Galaxy smartphone mounted in a Samsung Gear VR headset. The phone captures the scene using the smartphone’s camera, then remaps the scene to enhance its visibility for (Read more...)
Artificial Kinesthetic Feedback Improves Control of Prosthetic Devices
Unlike mechanical machines, our bodies perform seemingly simple tasks by relying on extremely complicated neurological processes. Even something as simple as moving one’s hand involves high-precision feedback loops that allow the brain to constantly monitor and adjust the hand’s motion. Because people using prostheses can’t feel w (Read more...)
Brains of People Using Prostheses Think of Their Devices as Real Hands
Building highly capable prosthetic devices of the future will have to involve getting the brain to better recognize an artificial appendage as its own. This finding has materialized thanks to an interesting study performed by researchers at University College London. The researchers recruited healthy volunteers and those with one missing hand, incl (Read more...)
Soft Electronics for Long Term Neural Monitoring and Recording
Scientists at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, Linköping University in Sweden, and Columbia and NYU in New York City, have developed a highly flexible soft electronic neural interface probe that can be stretched to twice its original length. The device is suitable for long-term neural recording, and could help clinicians to diagnose and monitor neur (Read more...)
Learning Method for Tuning Exoskeletons
Body-worn robots that assist people with disabilities are becoming more common, thanks to research and development over the last decade or so. While there’s been a great deal of progress in perfecting powered exoskeletons, there’s still a lot of work left to be able to coordinate their movements with the individuals that are wearing the (Read more...)
Carbon Nanotubes Spun Into Yarn Work to Stimulate Neurons Inside Brain
An amazing possibility for the field of neurology is being able to read signals from and stimulate individual nerves in living animals and humans, and for long periods of time. Studies about the brain could be phenomenally productive using such technology and therapies for all kinds of condition would be forthcoming. But current tungsten-based (Read more...)
Exclusive Interview with Andy Nie of GYENNO on Interventions for Parkinson’s
Using innovative technology similar to that used for the more widely known Parkinson’s spoon, GYENNO Technologies, a Chinese firm, has developed new Gait Aid Equipment to help the 60% of later-stage Parkinson’s patients who experience “gait freeze” and are at risk for falls. The system’s smart sensors detect when (Read more...)
Highly Compliant, Ultra Sensitive Electronic Skin to Give Prostheses a Sense of Touch
Scientists at Stanford University have created a way to produce thin, stretchable electronic circuits that feature incredibly sensitive pressure sensors. These electronics can one day be wrapped around prosthetic hands to provide a sense of touch or to create wearable electronics for long term body sensing, among many other possible applications. T (Read more...)
Stick-On Flexible Electronics to Track Stroke Recovery
Electronics that keep working even when repeatedly stretched and flexed have improved significantly in the last few years to the point that now they’re finally being introduced into real wearable medical devices. At Northwestern University, John Rogers, the scientist responsible for many achievements in the field of flexible electronics (see (Read more...)
On-Skin Flexible Screen for Displaying Live Health Information
Scientists at the University of Tokyo have developed an elastic display that can be affixed to the skin to display the waveform of an electrocardiogram, or other health parameters, detected by a skin sensor. When combined with a communication module, the system can transmit the data to a smartphone and the cloud, allowing doctors to […]
BewellConnect’s MyPeriTens Multi-Action Pelvic Floor Trainer
BewellConnect recently unveiled their new pelvic floor muscle trainer to help women with related issues, including post-partum complications and incontinence. The MyPeriTens device is both an electrical nerve stimulator and electrical muscle stimulator that is controlled through a smartphone app, allowing women to have precise control over the inte (Read more...)
Liftware’s Smart Utensils Cancel Out Hand Tremors and More (Interview)
For most people, meal time is something to look forward to. But for the millions of people with hand tremors and irregular hand movements caused by Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, spinal cord injuries, or just old age, using utensils can turn an enjoyable meal into a frustrating experience. Liftware hopes to resolve that frustration. T (Read more...)
Halo Neuroscience’s Headset Zaps Your Brain To Train It
While it is just a couple of milliamps of positive electric current (about what a 9-volt battery produces), as an engineer who has had to worry about maximum electrical current tolerances for creating safe medical devices, I admit that the thought of zapping my brain using a headset initially made me feel uneasy. However, after […]
KineQuantum Uses Virtual Reality for Real Physical Rehabilitation
Physical rehabilitation can be tedious and boring, and evaluation of a patient’s progress fraught by poor metrics and subjectivity. At the recent CES 2018 in Las Vegas we discovered a new virtual reality-based evaluation, rehab, and follow-up platform that makes it fun and convenient to assess patients, administer various game-based training (Read more...)
GYENNO Gait Aid Helps Avoid Gait Freeze in Parkinson’s Patients
GYENNO, a Chinese company that develops technologies to help people with Parkinson’s and other movement disorders, was showing off its Gait Aid Equipment package at the recent CES 2018 conference in Las Vegas. The company believes that Gait Aid, which consists of a number of devices that work together to influence how people walk, will h (Read more...)