Exoskeleton lets UC Berkeley grad take a huge step

San Francisco Chronicle / sfgate.com ^ | Sunday, May 15, 2011 | Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer

[thecodont]

Austin Whitney walked on Saturday. No faith healers were involved.

Yet when the paralyzed 22-year-old rose from his wheelchair and stepped across the UC Berkeley commencement stage to shake Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's hand, the crowd of 15,000 at Edwards Stadium went wild with cheers, as if witnessing a miracle.

In a way, they were.

"Ask anybody in a wheelchair; ask what it would mean to once again stand and shake someone's hand while facing them at eye level," Whitney said in anticipation of his momentous day. "It will be surreal, like a dream."

Or like putting on the Iron Man suit and acquiring super powers. A team of UC Berkeley mechanical engineers - four doctoral students led by Professor Homayoon Kazerooni - have been developing a computerized body brace called an exoskeleton they believe will be good enough to transform thousands of wheelchair users into walking people in a couple of years, and for an affordable price.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/14/BARO1JFEP8.DTL#ixzz1MRmtjZUC

[Atlas Sneezed]

Nifty, but it would have been nicer if they had found some deserving paraplegic who didn’t sever his spinal cord drunk-driving into a tree in high-school.

[Rudder]

Good that you are not a physician, or this picture wouldn't have happened.

[newzjunkey]

Look at the plus side, he only harmed himself and this isn't some embryonic stem cell voodoo, just old fashion mechanics.

The real downside? He was a history and political science major.

[SanFranDan]

obamacare would fund this for all of us right?

[Carry_Okie]

I've been saying for years that engineers have more to do with the miracles of modern medicine than do physicians. From public utilities, water and sewage treatment systems, safety equipment, to scanning technology, to laproscopic instruments, this is simply another example.

[almost done by half]

Every trade has tools.......

[Atlas Sneezed]

Good that you are not a physician, or this picture wouldn’t have happened.

---

Yes, it would have happened with someone who was blameless for their handicap.

[Yossarian]

Nifty, but it would have been nicer if they had found some deserving paraplegic who didn’t sever his spinal cord drunk-driving into a tree in high-school.

Ah, in training to take over the Pearly Gates from St. Peter, I see...

...or will you just be waterboarding the confessional priest of everyone seeking health care to make sure they are free of sin?

[Rudder]

You the guy who threw the first stone?

[chemicalman]

Wonder when they’ll come out with the Jason Richter CID models?

[SaraJohnson]

This does not replace a miracle healing as the article implies, but it is wonderful technology!