Powered exoskeletons and other assistive devices tend to be clunky, noisy, and consist of rigid parts that can be heavy and uncomfortable to wear. Scientists at Linköping University and University of Borås in Sweden have developed a new way of powering body-worn devices that doesn’t involve any motors, pulleys, or gears. The technique relies on creating a […]
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Second Sight Medical, a company out of Sylmar, California, has implanted the first device that may bring vision to people that are completely blind from just about any injury or condition. The company became famous for its revolutionary Argus II retinal prosthesis that bypasses damaged photoreceptors in the eye and stimulates remaining retinal cells that […]
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The OrCam My Eye is a wearable device that converts visual information into spoken words, helping people with low vision to navigate independently through everyday life. The device consists of a miniature camera clipped onto the wearer’s eyeglass frame, an attached bone conduction ear-piece, and a small box housing the battery and computing power that is […]
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Lower limb prostheses are becoming competitive with real legs in terms of strength, running speed, and other characteristics. One important factor these devices are still missing compared to natural legs is the brain’s assistance when recovering from a stumble. Now researchers at ETH Zurich and National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics in Switzerland are studying […]
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AXINESIS, startup out of Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, won the European CE Mark to introduce its REAplan arm rehabilitation system. The product is designed to help people with brain injury, such as a stroke, recover motor activity in the upper limbs. The robotic device runs the patient through repetitive movement game-like tasks that involve following […]
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Technologies such as the Second Sight eye prosthesis can bring back basic vision to some blind people. However, the results are difficult to imagine for those not using such systems. Researchers at the University of Washington wanted to find out what it’s really like to see using a bionic eye, so they performed a […]
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There’s a new smartwatch soon to be coming to market, but it’s designed for blind people, especially those who already know or are learning to read in Braille. The Dot watch has a Braille reader on its face and can connect to a smartphone via Bluetooth for programming. It works as a regular watch that […]
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There’s a new smartwatch soon to be coming to market, but it’s designed for blind people, especially those who already know or are learning to read in Braille. The Dot watch has a Braille reader on its face and can connect to a smartphone via Bluetooth for programming. It works as a regular watch that […]
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Exoskeletons have been used in rehabilitation to help paralyzed people walk on their own feet, as well as for military applications to allow soldiers to trek for long distances while carrying heavy loads. Ekso Bionics thinks a big market is for workers in all sorts of industries to be able to use heavy handheld equipment […]
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Exoskeletons have been used in rehabilitation to help paralyzed people walk on their own feet, as well as for military applications to allow soldiers to trek for long distances while carrying heavy loads. Ekso Bionics thinks a big market is for workers in all sorts of industries to be able to use heavy handheld equipment […]
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Severely disabled people may soon be able to use new technology to communicate with others and to control external devices simply by using their thoughts. Brain-computer interfaces have shown promise in the past in being able to interpret a user’s intentions, but they are limited by the size of the electrode array and so the […]
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Severely disabled people may soon be able to use new technology to communicate with others and to control external devices simply by using their thoughts. Brain-computer interfaces have shown promise in the past in being able to interpret a user’s intentions, but they are limited by the size of the electrode array and so the […]
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Prima Vision, a company based in Paris, France, is reporting that its PRIMA wireless subretinal implants for people who lost their vision has show a great deal of promise in a pre-clinical trial. The technology is designed specifically for those whose natural photoreceptors no longer function, yet who retain retinal neurons that can be electrically activated. A bunch of the implants are injected into the back of the eye, each around 70-μm in width that represents a single pixel. The implants are basically tiny photovoltaic solar panels that emit electricity in response to light hitting their surface.
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In the future, people with certain vision disorders and even healthy eyed folks will have access to electronic contact lenses that can improve and augment native vision. There are already advancements in that direction, but the challenge of being able to embed tiny electronic components into such a small space may be the biggest hurdle. Now researchers at Princeton University have reported in journal Nano Letters the ability to use 3D printing to produce multi-color LEDs on contact lenses.
The LEDs are made out of quantum dot nanoparticle crystals, the size of which defines which color they will generate. These lenses still require an external power source to operate, but the proof of concept study effectively demonstrates that 3D printing is a viable technology to help miniaturize electronics for use in medical and other applications.
Just the other day we reported on new technology that corrects TV signals for colorblind people, and now we learn of new glasses that can make the entire world seem more colorful and vivid. The EnChroma Cx glasses from EnChroma, a Berkeley, California company, effectively provide high color contrast, producing an image in which the primary colors of red, blue, and green “pop” and are perceived correctly by the wearer.
The technology within the polycarbonate lenses is called Digital Color Boost because it has a very precise filtering of the color spectrum, allowing three ranges of wavelengths of light to come through while preventing much of the others from reaching the eyes. This is done using about 100 layers of a dielectric material, each only a few nanometers thick, that selectively screen light as it’s coming through.
Many people affected by certain types of glaucoma, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and some other diseases lose a great deal of their vision due to neuropathy rather than from damage to the optical components of the eye. The nerve rich areas that can be affected are either in the brain’s regions that deal with vision or within the neuronal structures in the optic nerve. Turns out that a bit of electrical stimulation can get nerve cells that were otherwise dormant, but that survived the injury, to activate and become productive members of their community of cells.
EBS Technologies, a German firm, developed technology that takes advantage of this effect and it’s now going to become available for the first time at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. The company’s NEXT WAVE system consists of an EEG cap, special goggles that provide both optical and electrical stimulation, and an EEG amplifier that talks to the goggles. The idea is to stimulate the retina while energizing the optic nerve to send signals to the brain. The EEG cap is used to monitor and adjust the effect of the therapy via a Supervisor Unit used by the therapist.
Germany’s Retina Implant AG has received European regulatory approval to begin offering its Alpha IMS implant for restoration of moderate sight in people blinded due to retinitis pigmentosa. The system essentially replaces the function of the retina, capturing light on a 3×3 mm wireless microchip that has a 1500 pixel resolution, and stimulating the optic nerve based on what the chip sees. The Alpha IMS doesn’t use an external camera, so looking around is done naturally with the eyes rather than the head, as in some systems.
Thirty six people have received the implant so far, and the latest study involving nine blind people showed that the system is a practical solution to restoring useful vision in select patients, as they were able to recognize numbers on doors, faces, and identify facial expressions.
A new therapeutic approach for lazy eye, also known as amblyopia, uses good old Tetris to train the eyes to work together. This innovative approach to a common eye disorder is a result of research done by Dr. Robert Hess from McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada. And yes, you have read correctly: they use a video game to treat an eye disorder. You might also question: “Didn’t video games and other close-up activities, like reading, induce eye problems?” Also sometimes true, but that’s usually nearsightedness, not lazy eye.
In amblyopia, one of the eyes has impaired vision which can lead to suppression of the weak eye. If amblyopia is detected at a young age, the chance to acquire normal vision with both eyes is good. The standard therapy is to correct for the cause of the weaker vision, often done by wearing correct spectacles and patching the stronger eye. However, patching has not been proven very effective in adult amblyopia.
Newly developed light sensitive proteins, genetically introduced into retinal nerve cells, may lead to the ability to restore vision in the blind. One challenge in developing a real-world system is that these protein activated neurons require a high energy light source for them to send electrical signals to the brain. Moreover, this light source needs to be both very precise and wide-field to activate large number of cells at the same time.
To that end, researchers at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology are using holography to activate the repaired retinal nerve cells – and have already tested the technology on mice. They tried lasers, projectors, and video displays, but they were either not bright enough or didn’t have the ability to effectively stimulate large numbers of cells. Holography did the trick. The researchers admit this work is still in its early stages, but the fact that it’s pointing to definite application in the future is certainly promising for the field of ophthalmology.
Retina Implant AG, a German developer of subretinal implants to help restore sight of people with retinitis pigmentosa, has announced publication of results of a new clinical trial of its Alpha IMS system. Nine blind people received the 3×3 mm wireless microchip implants that feature a 1500 pixel resolution. The implants capture light and in turn stimulate the optic nerve, which delivers visual signal data to the brain.
A distinct advantage of the Alpha IMS is that, unlike other similar devices such as the recently released Argus II, it does not rely on an external camera. Instead, light is detected inside the eye, enabling the patient to look around by moving his eyes rather than the head. It also has a much higher resolution grid and is implanted under the retina, allowing the middle layer of the retina to process the input before it is sent to the visual cortex.