http://titanarm.com/aboutTitan Arm is an untethered, powered, upper body exoskeleton concept for use in rehabilitation and therapeutic applications, which can also augment strength. It is under development and not yet ready to be brought to market, but is being designed by students at The University of Pennsylvania. It straps directly to a user’s right arm to help lift heavy objects. Its inventors believe that it will be useful in aiding physical rehabilitation, both for people who have suffered upper body injuries and for those with pre-existing muscular-skeletal disorders. The bionic limb can lift approximately 40 pounds of weight, and is predominantly made of aluminum and steel components, and powered by a DC battery.
Category: Assistive Technologies
http://www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2013/nibib-23.htm
Three projects have been awarded funding by the National Institutes of Health. All involve robots that cooperate with people and adapt to changing environments to improve human capabilities and enhance medical procedures.
- A co-robotic navigation device for the blind: Cang Ye at University of Arkansas is incorporating 3D imaging sensor technology into the white cane. This enables it to detect and relay to the user critical information about the environment, like when there’s a potential obstacle in the way. In related research, Professor Amnon Shashua at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, through his company OrCam, uses Artificial Vision to compensate for lost visual abilities, and Professor Amir Amedi at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is also developing cutting edge technology to help the vision impaired. His projects include reading in the blind, sensory substitution devices, multisensory perception, topographic brain, and seeing with music and sound.
- MRI-guided co-robotic catheter: During traditional catheter ablation for the treatment of atrial fibrillation, one of the most common arrhythmias, a catheter with an electrode on its tip is threaded through a vein in a patient’s groin up to the heart. Doctors destroy tissue at certain points on the heart in order to prevent the occurrence of irregular heart activity. The constant movement of the heart and blood can make that process difficult. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University are developing a catheter that uses robotic planning strategies to compensate for those movements to increase accuracy of procedures in conjunction with MRI.
- Platform for exploration of robotic ankle exoskeleton control: Researchers at North Carolina State and Carnegie Mellon are developing a method to compare different wearable devices to assist people recovering from stroke.
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/10/08/1221113110.abstract?sid=35f0c072-fa67-4ec8-9e83-17a292a83982University of Chicago scientists have completed a study on stimulating a prosthetic limb wearer’s brain with electrical signals to replicate feelings of touch.
The researchers used monkeys with electrodes connected to touch-associated areas of the brain. They completed touch exercises with their normal hand and an unstimulated brain. The same exercises were conducted with a prosthetic hand, which was equipped with pressure sensors to register instances of touch. Pressure registered by the hand was converted into electrical signals, which the electrodes delivered to the monkeys’ brains. The monkeys responded the same in both situations. This includes when the monkeys first touched or released an object, sensing pressure and identifying where on their finger they touched an object.
This has not yet been studied in humans.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/disruptions-guided-by-touch-screens-blind-turn-to-smartphones-for-sight/?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytimesbusiness&_r=0The New York Times Bits blog reports that “advocates for the blind say that smartphones and tablets could be the biggest assistive aid to come along since Braille was invented in the 1820s.” Writer Nick Bilton explores some of the many ways–from voice commands to gesture readers–that mobile devices are helping the visually impaired.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1300126
A robotic control system for a prosthetic leg allowed a 31-year-old man to walk and climb stairs with a nearly normal gait. The system links nerves in the thigh — including some for missing muscles in the lower limb — to a processor that decodes the signals and guides the motion of the prosthesis, according to Levi Hargrove of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
The prosthetic limb includes thirteen mechanical sensors and can be used — like many commercially available prostheses — by changing its settings with a wireless key fob. Combining electromyographic signals from the residual limb and the sensor data eliminated the need to change settings with an external device and produced unique stride patterns for each type of ambulation, such as walking on a ramp and climbing stairs. Adding the data from the nerves to the information from the sensors reduced the error rate — misclassification by the control system of the patient’s intended movement — from 12.9% to 1.8% of all motions.
http://www.domain-b.com/technology/20130912_movements.html
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have developed bidirectional OLED microdisplay eye-controlled data glasses. Users can view the real world while browsing a large amount of virtual information and turn pages with their eyes.
Integrated camera sensors register the direction of the wearer’s eye movements and an image processing program calculates the exact position of their pupils in real time. An infrared light source in the glass frame produces accurate positioning results even in low light.
The glasses can enable elderly and disabled people to attract attention in emergencies using nothing but their eyes – or simply provide a way to change the TV channel using specific eye movements.
http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=OFFR_TM_EN&ACTION=D&RCN=11525
A European consortium of research institutes, universities and technology companies has developed a highly customizable robot companion to help seniors to maintain their quality of life, stay healthy and avoid social exclusion.
The robot, a mobile wheeled semi-humanoid figure equipped with cameras, sensors, audio, and a touch screen interface, can remind users to take their medicine, suggest they have their favorite drink, or prompt them to go for a walk or visit friends if they haven’t been out for a while. As part of a larger smart-home environment that can include smart clothing to monitor vital signs, the system can monitor user’s health and safety, and alert emergency services if necessary.
http://www.orcam.comOrCam, led by Hebrew University Professor Amnon Shashua, one the most exciting computer vision entrepreneurs in Israel, has developed a device that uses audio feedback to relay visual information to visually impaired people. The tiny wearable computer works with a 5-mega pixel camera attached to glasses. A computer vision algorithm enables it to read text, and it can be taught to recognize faces and objects with the help of the user.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130708124423.htm
Professor Hossam Haick at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has created a flexible sensor that could be integrated into electronic skin, enabling those with prosthetic limbs to feel changes in their environments. The Technion invention simultaneously senses touch, humidity, and temperature. According to Professor Haick, it is at least 10 times more sensitive to touch than current systems. It should be compared to the technology developed by University of Illinois Professor John Rogers (see ApplySci posts of March 13, 2013 and June 8, 2013) and being commercialized by mc10.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/06/18/191279201/3-d-printer-brings-dexterity-to-children-with-no-fingersA Robohand is a customized, fitted set of mechanical fingers that open and close to grasp things based on the motion of the wrist. When the wrist folds and contracts, the cables attaching the fingers to the base structure cause the fingers to curl. Nearly all the parts of a Robohand are 3D printed on MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D printers.
http://www.livescience.com/27849-mind-controlled-devices-brain-awareness-nsf.html
University of Minnesota researchers led by Professor Bin He have been able to control a small helicopter using only their minds, pushing the potential of technology that could help paralyzed or motion-impaired people interact with the world around them.
An EEG cap with 64 electrodes was put on head of the person controlling the helicopter. The researchers mapped the controller’s brain activity while they performed certain tasks (for example, making a fist or looking up). They then mapped those patterns to controls in the helicopter. If the researchers mapped “go up” to a clenched fist, the copter went up. After that, the copter would go up automatically when the controller clenches a fist.
http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2013/05/30.aspx
DARPA continues to build technology with academic partners to enable amputees to control prosthetic limbs with their minds. Examples follow:
Researchers at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago demonstrated a type of peripheral interface called targeted muscle re-innervation (TMR). By rewiring nerves from amputated limbs, new interfaces allow for prosthetic control with existing muscles.
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University used a flat interface nerve electrode (FINE) to demonstrate direct sensory feedback. By interfacing with residual nerves in the patient’s partial limb, some sense of touch by the fingers is restored. Other existing prosthetic limb control systems rely solely on visual feedback. Unlike visual feedback, direct sensory feedback allows patients to move a hand without keeping their eyes on it—enabling simple tasks, like searching a bag for small items, not possible with today’s prosthetics.