Many disabilities create communication limitations for patients and many of these limitations still have poor technological solutions. A new method of sending messages to people, neither through text nor speech, has been developed in a collaboration between Purdue University, MIT, and Facebook. Their prototype device is a wrist pad that has a serie (Read more...)
Tag: Rehab
ZEEQ, World’s “Smartest Pillow”: A Medgadget Review
We spend around one-third of our life sleeping, and as we all know, the quality of our sleep directly affects how we feel and function the following day. Those of us looking for a better night’s sleep often start by searching for a “better” pillow, but what does that mean? We have all heard companies […]
Withings Releases Tough Smartwatch with Advanced Fitness Tracking
Withings, the French company that sold itself to Nokia and then rescued itself back as an independent firm, has just put out its first product since the corporate separation. The new Withings Steel HR Sport watch looks much like a classic mechanical or quartz watch, but which is actually packed with multiple sensors and digital […]
dayzz, An Evidence-Based, Personalized Sleep Training App for Employers, Interview with CEO Amir Inditzky
In addition to fatigue, high blood pressure, and weight gain experienced by individuals with chronically poor sleep, productivity and performance in the workplace are also known to suffer. Sleep deprivation, for example, can cost employers up to six lost working days and $2,762 in financial impact annually per employee. Today, the American Academy (Read more...)
Oticon Opn Hearing Aids Now Help Assess Hearing Health
Oticon, one of the big names in hearing aid products, is releasing a tool that helps people using hearing aids to learn more about their hearing health and to better understand how these devices are impacting their lives. The technology is available on the Oticon Opn hearing aids, including for patients that have already been […]
Smart Prosthetic with Sensors That Talk Directly to Cellular Networks
Today’s smart medical devices, such as glucometers that keep a record of blood sugar readings, typically require a smartphone as a gateway to link them to the internet. This poses some drawbacks, as patients are required to maintain a paired smartphone nearby and to make sure the data is uploaded regularly to a healthcare provider’s [&h (Read more...)
Artificial Intelligence to Make Prosthetic Arms Cheaper, Faster, More Real
Prosthetic arms that are available these days are fairly high tech, but they’re not very smart. They can’t feel and can’t adapt well to the things the fingers grasp onto, and to really get a good connection the patient needs the electrodes implanted into the stump. Researchers at Microsoft believe that artificial intelligence tech (Read more...)
Draper’s Wireless Brain Implant to Make New Therapies Possible
Draper, an engineering firm in Cambridge, MA, has developed a tiny wireless neuromodulation device that may be small enough to implant into the interior of the cranium right against the brain. Current brain stimulators are placed, like pacemakers, under the skin in the chest, with electric leads reaching out through the vasculature into the brain. (Read more...)
Training Athletes’ Dynamic Vision with System Originally Designed to Detect Concussions
SyncThink is a company known for making eye tracking devices that can help to diagnose brain concussions. Their FDA-cleared EYE-SYNC technology is already being used by a number of university sports programs, as well as by major hospitals. Now the same technology is being adapted to help athletes in demanding sports to improve their dynamic [&helli (Read more...)
Flexible Self-Powered Knee Sensor for Rehab Monitoring
Engineers at the University of Waterloo in Canada have developed a self-powered knee sensor to help monitor patients undergoing rehabilitation therapy. The device has a tubular shape and it generates its own electricity every time it’s flexed, enough so to power not only the sensor, but the electronics, and an antenna for wireless data transm (Read more...)
Livio AI Hearing Aids with Physical and Cognitive Health Monitoring
Starkey, one of the big hearing aid firms, is releasing a new device that works as a combination hearing aid, fitness monitor, and, surprisingly, as a tracker of cognitive health. In addition to all this, the new Livio AI hearing aids feature integrated language translation, connectivity to Amazon Alexa devices, and the ability to measure [… (Read more...)
Multimedia Experience to Help Alzheimer’s Patients Connect
People with advanced Alzheimer’s disease have a serious difficulty connecting to the real world. Gabriela Gomes, a graduate of University of South California’s School of Cinematic Arts, has created a unique experience-based digital solution that takes Alzheimer’s patients to a comforting place they may recognize and enjo (Read more...)
Walking Simulator Measures People’s Gait Efficiency
One’s walking style can reveal a good deal of what’s going on inside our bodies. We naturally take on a gait and stride that are the most efficient and cause us least pain, so being able to analyze a walking style may help with diagnoses, rehab, and monitoring of a variety of conditions. To that […]
Magnetic Stimulation Restores Bladder Control in Paralyzed Men
Patients with spinal cord injuries report that in addition to paralysis the lack of bladder control is one of the most troubling issues. At University of California Los Angeles, researchers have shown that they were able to restore significant bladder control to five men that suffered through spinal cord injuries years prior to treatment. The [&hel (Read more...)
“Hey Chloe” AI Platform for Poor Vision: Interview with Tad Reynes of AT&T and Greg Stilson of Aira
AT&T has paired up with Aira, a La Jolla, California company, to develop technology to assist those with low vision to read important text, such as labels on medication bottles. Their system relies on Aira’s augmented reality smart glasses, which contain a camera and allow people with low vision to talk with a remote agent over [&hel (Read more...)
Virtual Reality and Neural Stimulation to Help Amputees Use Their Prostheses
Researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland have developed a new technique to help amputees use their prostheses. The method involves virtual reality and neural stimulation to help change an amputee’s “phantom limb” to more closely match their prosthetic limb, making it easier and more (Read more...)
GN Hearing Unveils ReSound LiNX Quattro Advanced Hearing Aid
GN Hearing, a company that makes audio technology that appears under names such as Beltone, Interton, and Jabra, just announced new hearing aid called ReSound LiNX Quattro. The firm describes it as “the world’s first Premium-Plus hearing aid,” delivering what it believes is the best sound quality and speech intelligibility availab (Read more...)
3D Printed Silicone and Stem Cell Implant to Treat Spinal Cord Injuries
Spinal cord injuries are notorious for the disabilities they cause and for the difficulty of finding a way to fix them. At the University of Minnesota researchers are pointing to a potential solution in the form of 3D printed scaffolds seeded with neuronal stem cells. The team has already created a prototype device, made of […]
Highly Sensitive Electronic Skin Detects Touch and Temperature Changes
The University of Texas at Arlington has obtained a patent for a highly sensitive electronic skin that may one day give prosthetic devices a keen sense of touch. The e-skin features a dense forest of flexible zinc oxide nanowires on its surface. As it comes in contact with something, each nanowire generates a small electric […]
Caretaker Beat-by-Beat Continuous Blood Pressure and Vital Signs Monitor Cleared in EU
Caretaker Medical, a firm based in Charlottesville, Virginia, won approval to introduce its Caretaker 4 wireless continuous non-invasive blood pressure (CNIBP) and vital signs monitoring system in the European Union. The product, already approved in the U.S., provides beat-by-beat blood pressure measurements with an accuracy sufficient fo (Read more...)