Bionic exoskeleton helps wheelchair users walk

From: http://news.yahoo.com/

 LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 21: Engineer Thomas Dwyer stands with the new Bionic Exoskeleton next to Amanda Boxtel during its launch at the Excel centre on October 21, 2011 in London, England. The bionic device developed by Ekso Bionics is a wearable, battery-powered, robotic exoskeleton, designed to aid wheelchair users and those who have suffered from spinal chord injuries to stand and walk. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

 

 

eLEGS Makes Walking Possible for Paraplegics

Bionic legs offer new mobility for the wheelchair-bound.

By Jaymi Heimbuch 

San Francisco, CA From http://planetgreen.discovery.com/

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Screengrab via video from BerkeleyBionics

Few things are likely more amazing than regaining the use of your legs if you're wheelchair bound. Berkeley Bionics has created an exoskeleton that allows a paraplegic person to stand up and walk. Typically, the inventions coming from the labs at Berkeley Bionics help add strength and endurance to people traveling long distances with heavy loads, such as military personnel. However, they've upped the bar on their inventions, so to speak, and unveiled eLEGS last week.

CEO Eythor Bender stated in a press conference, “Many of the 6 million Americans who live with some form of paralysis today were highly active and at the top of their game when they sustained their injury. As they research their options for increased mobility, they discover that wheelchairs are pretty much it... We want to enhance their independence and freedom of movement."

You can see from the video below that the possibilities of strength training and freedom of movement are extraordinary, thanks to the electronic exoskeleton. While it will be used primarily for rehabilitation at medical centers, one day it could possibly be used as an alternative for wheel chairs.



eLEGS is battery powered, and can go as quickly as 2 mph depending on the user's abilities and strength. It works by sensing the user's gestures and intentions to move forward, and reacts accordingly, a little bit like the brain-powered wheelchair.

Italy Finds 4,500-Year Old Skeleton Of Warrior

The well-preserved skeleton, dubbed `Nello`, was found during a routine flyover around areas of archaeological interest in May.

A roughly 4,500 year-old skeleton of a man, probably a warrior killed by an arrow to the chest, has been discovered on a beach south of Rome, Italian police said.

The well-preserved skeleton, dubbed "Nello", was found during a routine flyover around areas of archaeological interest in May that prompted police to probe a fissure in the ground.

"We thought it was that of a Roman solider, but then the experts identified it as dating back to the third millennium B.C.," said Raffaele Mancino, an official with the police division overseeing Italy's cultural heritage.

Six small vases were found buried alongside the skeleton, whose feet are missing. The young man probably lived just within a few hundred years of "Otzi", the prehistoric iceman whose corpse was found frozen in the Italian Alps in 1991.

Archaeologists said they plan further excavations since the discovery could be a tip-off to a broader necropolis in the area.