Toyota, the auto company, has been investing resources into using virtual reality to help it build cars, design safety systems, and educate the public about safe driving habits. Its Swedish division has just unveiled a new simulation that can reproduce how people with a variety of visual conditions perceive the world around them. The simulation […]
Tag: Rehab
Researchers Give Animals Infrared Vision
Even those of us with perfect vision are actually blind in some ways. Many birds can see ultraviolet light and snakes can detect infrared, something we don’t have the right retinal cells for. But now researchers at University of Massachusetts Medical School and University of Science and Technology of China have shown that it may soon be […]
ErgoJack Smart Vest Prevents Injuries at Work
Construction, factory, and farm workers, among others, tend to put a lot of strain on their backs. It’s no surprise that back problems are common in such professions. Paying attention to one’s posture and being careful to avoid putting too much demand on the bones and muscles of the back can certainly help, but not […]
Prosthetic with Sense of Touch Lets Patients Know Its Location
Our ability to throw a ball, walk down a sidewalk, or talk without mumbling is in part because of proprioception, the ability for us to intuitively know where our feet are, how our hands our moving, and what the mouth is doing. Without proprioception, we’d have to look down at our feet on every step […]
QTrobot Enhances Learning Opportunities For Children With Autism
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 characterized by impaired social […]
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 for their hearing loss from the […]
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 composite covered by graphene, a material only […]
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 Transradial […]
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’s action, so that […]
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’s glasses, the machine-learning […]
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 […]
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 the auditory cortex […]
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 the arms. The readings are […]
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 feature the company’s innovative Vercise Cartesia directional lead which allows […]
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 […]
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, headsets can be made a lot smarter, […]
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, neuromuscular, and other injuries. It does so […]