Posted on 10/08/2010 3:59:38 PM PDT by justlittleoleme
SAN FRANCISCO -- A new device developed by a Berkeley company was unveiled Thursday that will soon give people paralyzed by debilitating injuries a second chance at walking.
Eighteen years ago, Amanda Boxtel was paralyzed in a skiing accident; today, a futuristic invention is helping her walk upright again.
Boxtel strode onto a stage in San Francisco Thursday morning without the use of her wheelchair, draped in a 45-pound bionic exoskeleton that guided her leg movements using computer sensors.
The invention, called eLEGS, or Exoskeleton Lower Extremity Gait System, was unveiled by Berkeley Bionics, an East Bay company founded in 2005. The firm has previously developed bionic exoskeletons for military use.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktvu.com ...
Thanks for posting this.
Your welcome
Why would they be veiled?
Must be some Islamic thing.
;-)
What a great story! Thanks for posting.
Spent four years attending to the paralyzed at West Roxbury VA hospital, granted, years back.
But I still remember, and this is the best news for those folks that I’ve seen over the years.
Thanks for the thumbs up!
Wow! Thanks for posting! A mechanical miracle for the paralyzed! And only the price of a high-end wheelchair! I’d say that’s a miracle too!
Somewhere, Robert Heinlein is smiling.
That is very, very cool. Excellent post.
In time they’ll make the backpack part even smaller. Right now you wouldn’t want to go through airport security wearing one of those. They’d evacuate the entire place.
Will this continue with Obozo as we go forward?
Capital is on strike, how many amazing inventions like this are withering on the vine as we speak and will not go forward because of our Dear Leader?
Now all it needs are a yellow paint job and a couple of forklift attachments...
Go Ripley!
It’s true what you say about American free market innovation.
But if this had been made in Japan, you could have had sex with it. I’m just saying.
Actually this is very close to my heart. For the past year my wife has been plagued with an undiagnosed neurological illness. At times she has been unable to walk and almost blind. She has some very good doctors, but so far they have been unable to find the cause. She has been tested for probably about every cause the doctors have been able to think of.
Amazing how many good things for the civilian side comes from the research and development done for the military.
***Now all it needs are a yellow paint job and a couple of forklift attachments...
Go Ripley!***
Is it like the unit shown on the cover of Popular Mechanics back in the mid 60s? Then appeared in the movies THE AMBUSHERS (Mattt Helm’s girl using it in a Mexican brewery) and ALIENS (Ripley uses it to clean house on the alien momma).
There ain't gonna be no Obamacare, Medicare or Medicaid!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.