Immobility Could Be Soon Be Overcome?
A Japanese Company called Cyberdyne, have invented a robot suit that they have called HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb).
When the brain sends signals to the muscles to move a limb, very weak signals can be picked up on the skin's surface and HAL can detect these and move the limbs for the person.
People who have been wheelchair bound for years can now move around again by wearing this robot suit. Cyberdyne are renting it out at $2000 per month but that should become cheaper if it proves popular. Care homes are showing a lot of interest in this and I hope it makes it to Britain.
This is a video of the suit in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ysb-Oko3Bg
The designer has been working for 20 years on this. It took him 3 years to identify the impulses linking the brain to leg movement and then another 4 years to perfect the timing of the signals to actual movement to the motor.
One chap, a stroke victim, hadn't been able to walk for years but could walk upstairs wearing HAL - what a difference to people's lives that this would make, joint problems as well wouldn't prevent people from being able to get out and about.
Marvellous stuff
Well done to the Professor who pioneered and perfected this system. What would we do without people like him!