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. (Read more...)
Tag: Rehab
Second Sight’s Orion I Brain Implant Bypasses Visual System to Let Blind See
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 cell (Read more...)
OrCam My Eye Helps Patients with Low Vision to Read Text and Recognize Objects in Everyday Life
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 comput (Read more...)
Knee Perturbator Studies How Legs Recover from Stumbles to Improve Prostheses
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 Resea (Read more...)
AXINESIS REAplan Upper Limb Rehab Robotic System Cleared in EU
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 (Read more...)
Simulation Demonstrates How Restored Vision Looks in Various Technologies
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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Braille Smartwatch Helps Blind People Communicate, Navigate, Read Ebooks
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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Braille Smartwatch Helps Blind People Communicate, Navigate, Read Ebooks
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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Ekso Works Exoskeleton Lets Workers Operate Heavy Tools With Ease
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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Ekso Works Exoskeleton Lets Workers Operate Heavy Tools With Ease
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 […]
The post Ekso Wo (Read more...)
New Brain-Computer Interface System Lets Monkey Control Computer Cursor with Impressive Precision
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 […]
The po (Read more...)
New Brain-Computer Interface System Lets Monkey Control Computer Cursor with Impressive Precision
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 […]
The po (Read more...)
Pixium Vision Implants Restore Sight in Rats with Retinal Degeneration, Humans Next (VIDEO)
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 el (Read more...)
Princeton Scientists 3D Printing LEDs Into Contact Lenses
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 researc (Read more...)
EnChroma Cx Glasses for Colorblindness Now Available (VIDEO)
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 o (Read more...)
EBS Technologies Electro-Optical Stimulation System Restores Vision Lost Due to Neurological Conditions (VIDEO)
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 neuron (Read more...)
Alpha IMS Vision Restoring Wireless Retinal Implant Now Cleared in Europe (VIDEO)
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 st (Read more...)
Tetris Therapy Against Amblyopia
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 (Read more...)
Holography Stimulates Optogenetically Photosensitized Retinal Nerve Cells to Restore Vision
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 n (Read more...)
Retinal Implant Alpha IMS Brings Sight to Blind in New Study (w/video)
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 (Read more...)