The hands and fingers can be thought of as diagnostic windows into different aspects of our human physiology. Hand activity and grip strength may be useful indicators of person’s overall health. Researchers at Harvard’s School of Engineering have developed safe and accurate force and strain sensors that can be attached directly to finge (Read more...)
Tag: Rehab
Fingernail Sensor and Artificial Intelligence for Monitoring Parkinson’s, Other Diseases
Grip strength, as well as walking speed and gait length, can be indicators of a person’s physical and mental health. A variety of conditions and treatments can be monitored from the grip strength, but such measurements are typically only performed infrequently at the doctor’s office. IBM Research has just developed a sensor that is atta (Read more...)
Weight Loss Implant Simulates Food Inside Stomach
There are millions of clinicians fighting on the front lines of the obesity epidemic every day, but there doesn’t seem to be a winning strategy. The population of seriously overweight people around the world is rising and will soon reach one billion. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers may have a technological, drug-free soluti (Read more...)
InterStim Incontinence and Bladder Control Implant Now Controlled via App
Medtronic won FDA approval to introduce the InterStim smart programmer to control the company’s InterStim neurostimulation system used to manage overactive bladder, bowel incontinence, and some types of urinary retention. The InterStim system delivers sacral neuromodulation therapy via an implant that looks similar to a cardiac pacemarke (Read more...)
Destigmatizing Hearing Loss with Technology: Interview with Eargo CEO Christian Gormsen
Today, 500 million people globally suffer from hearing loss, however, most individuals wait on average seven years before dealing with the condition due to a combination of factors, including stigmas and misconceptions related to hearing aids. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 40 million individuals live with untreated hearing loss. Stepping in to ad (Read more...)
Low-Cost 3D-Printed Adaptive Aids for Arthritis Patients
Researchers and students at Michigan Technological University have used a 3D printer to create adaptive aids for arthritis patients, which could help people perform daily tasks such as opening doors or getting dressed. The devices are a small fraction of the cost of commercial alternatives, meet or improve on existing standards, and are customizabl (Read more...)
3D-Printed Custom Robotic Prostheses: Interview with Easton LaChappelle, CEO and Co-Founder of Unlimited Tomorrow
Unlimited Tomorrow, a medical device startup based in Rhinebeck, NY, is developing inexpensive custom prostheses for upper limb amputees. Their approach involves 3D-printing inexpensive custom robotic devices that allow users to experience a sensation of touch, by providing live feedback on the forces that act on the prosthetics. While there are 30 (Read more...)
MusicGlove Combining Music and Games for Stroke Rehab: Interview with Dr. Nizan Friedman, CEO of Flint Rehab
Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability around the world. In the United States alone, nearly 800,00 people suffer from a stroke each year. Many of those who are lucky to survive continue to live with various long-term physical disabilities, including upper limb motor impairment. Studies have shown that early motor rehabilitation is [&hell (Read more...)
Prosthetic Arm Powered by Amputee Moving Phantom Limb
French researchers at CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique ), Aix-Marseille University, and Sorbonne University have managed to teach a prosthetic arm to decode and replicate the movements of an amputee’s phantom limb. Most people who lose a limb still feel its presence and can “move” it long after amputation. These (Read more...)
New Wheelchair Uses Facial Gestures Instead of Joystick
There are many tools that allow disabled people to operate wheelchairs, including joysticks and blow tubes, but a new partnership between HOOBOX Robotics, a Brazilian company, and Intel, the chip maker, has resulted in a wheelchair controlled exclusively by face gestures. The Wheelie, as the device is called, has a camera that constantly monitors t (Read more...)
New E-Skin Nearly as Sensitive as Real One
At Stanford University researchers have created an electronic skin that is sensitive enough to give robotic hands the ability to handle delicate berries. Though mostly intended for robotic hands, the technology may give powered prostheses similar capabilities. The e-skin can measure slight pressures and even the direction in which they’re app (Read more...)
Attilan Developing Virtual Prosthetic Arm Training
Upper body amputees that receive powered prosthetic arms and hands require a lot of practice to get used to new prostheses. These devices are not exactly intuitive to use, so peg boards and other rehab gadgets are employed. This kind of rehab can get pretty monotonous and, because the prostheses are often heavy, physically exhausting. […]
Severely Disabled People Control Tablet Computer via Brain Implant
A team of researchers in the U.S. has given three quadriplegic people the ability to use an off-the-shelf tablet computer with impressive ease. The researchers used a BrainGate2 neural interface that relies on an intracortical electrode array implant to allow direct communication between the brain and the tablet. The high-end system connected to th (Read more...)
Four Blind People Go Home With New Bionic Eyes
Bionic Vision Technologies, a firm based in Australia, has announced that its bionic eye system has been used to restore a “sense of sight” to four completely blind people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa. The findings from the study, which was performed at Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, were presented at the (Read more...)
Four Blind People Go Home With New Bionic Eyes
Bionic Vision Technologies, a firm based in Australia, has announced that its bionic eye system has been used to restore a “sense of sight” to four completely blind people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa. The findings from the study, which was performed at Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, were presented at the (Read more...)
Four Blind People Go Home With New Bionic Eyes
Bionic Vision Technologies, a firm based in Australia, has announced that its bionic eye system has been used to restore a “sense of sight” to four completely blind people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa. The findings from the study, which was performed at Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, were presented at the (Read more...)
Scientists Give Humans Ability to Sense Earth’s Magnetic Field
Birds and many other animals are able to perceive the Earth’s magnetic field, an ability that allows them to navigate around the world with magical ease. Scientists at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), a research center in Dresden, Germany, have developed an electronic skin that can give humans the same capability. The new tec (Read more...)
Scientists Give Humans Ability to Sense Earth’s Magnetic Field
Birds and many other animals are able to perceive the Earth’s magnetic field, an ability that allows them to navigate around the world with magical ease. Scientists at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), a research center in Dresden, Germany, have developed an electronic skin that can give humans the same capability. The new tec (Read more...)
Mental Illness Body Tracker Accurately Diagnoses PTSD
Mental illness can be notoriously difficult to diagnose in many cases, since symptoms may be invisible to physicians and those that are can be misleading. Objective methods that don’t rely on a direct observation would help to improve diagnosis. Researchers at Draper, the famous engineering firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have developed a s (Read more...)
Robotic Stroke Rehab Orthosis with Neuro-Muscular Stimulation to Speed Recovery at Home
Stroke rehab is typically a slow and meticulous process that requires a good deal of mental stamina and lots of help from professionals. Personally delivered rehab from a specialist is expensive, but if one has the staying power there’s new technology coming from Hong Kong Polytechnic University that lets people rehabilitate at home. The (Read more...)