bionic
Robot controlled by biological brain
The University of Reading has designed a robot that is controlled by 300,000 cultured rat neurons. The team anticipates that the behavior of the rat neurons will provide insight into how brains store data, which could lead to a better understanding of disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and strokes.
Raytheon's robotic exoskeleton delivers super-human qualities
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May 6, 2008 The advent of the robotic age is upon us and we can expect a huge transformation in the coming decade as robots of all shapes and sizes make their presence felt in many aspects of our lives. But robots wont just stand by our side as assistants, we'll actually climb aboard and wear them like a shell or suit of armor. This type of robot - known as an exoskeleton - is being developed in various guises that deliver extraordinary strength and endurance to the wearer and have the potential to impact on military, medical, industrial and transport arenas - anywhere that personal mobility, agility and strength is required. Raytheon's progress in the field is making headline news this week thanks in part to an intriguing article appearing in the May issue of Popular Science which makes the link between the company's ongoing research for the U.S. military and the release of the much hyped superhero flick Ironman(R).
Second Sight announces milestone in groundbreaking retinal implant trial
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February 20, 2008 It has to be among the most powerful examples of the miraculous potential of modern science and technology - restoring sight to the blind. Following approval from the US FDA last year, Second Sight Medical Products Inc has now announced that enrollment is complete for the first phase of clinical trials on a system that restores a basic level of sight to sufferers of retinal eye diseases. Enrollment at key European sites also underway. Ten subjects have been recruited for the Phase I trial of the second-generation electronic retinal implant known as The Argus II, which is capable of restoring rudimentary vision using an external camera and transmitter mounted in eyeglasses linked to a tiny array of 60 electrodes that are attached to the retina.
i-LIMB bionic hand approaches 100 fittings
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January 30, 2008 Touch Bionics has announced that its i-LIMB - the world’s first commercially available bionic hand - is expected to achieve the milestone of 100 patient fittings by the end of February this year, having already reached more than 70 people worldwide since its July 2007 launch.
Electronic Contact Lens promises bionic capabilities for everyone
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It’s not often in this era of rampant technological innovation that a fundamentally new concept surfaces with groundbreaking societal implications, but that was the case this week with the news that engineers at the University of Washington (UW) have used microscopic scale manufacturing techniques to combine a flexible contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights. Ultimately, such devices promise the bionic capabilities we became familiar with in the Terminator movies and Bionic Man TV series: optical zoom eyesight, recording what we see (quite literally), effectively invisible heads-up high resolution computer displays, genuine GPS-based augmented reality and a complete real-time health monitoring system with visible read outs. Thanks to the team headed by UW Electrical Engineering Professor Babak Parviz, these concepts are now not just viable, but likely in the foreseeable future. Gizmag spoke with Parviz about the project …
iLimb: world's first fully articulating and commercially available bionic hand
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August 6, 2007 The human hand is a magnificent triumph of evolution, combining a complex structure with incredible levels of facility and feedback to enable a stunning range of movements and uses. Its flexibility and usefulness also makes it a debilitating body part to lose and a huge challenge for those involved in the development of bionic limb replacements. The latest innovation from Touch Bionics represents a major step forward in bionic hand development: with four smart motorized fingers and its unique multi-position motorized thumb, all operating from myoelectrically-detected nerve endings in the stump, the iLimb hand opens up a range of grips and fine motor abilities that prosthetic hands have never had before, like using a key in a lock, or one-fingered typing on a keyboard. Another important advance is the simple yet very effective feedback sensors in the fingers which control grip pressure to hold fragile items like styrofoam cups without dropping or crushing them. What's more, patients can choose between the iLimb hand's funky robotic look or another world first - an incredibly realistic skin that you can pull on to make it look almost identical to a real hand.
Bionic arm uses elephant’s trunk as a design model
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July 4, 2007 The more we learn about intelligent design, the more we understand the engenuity of nature, and the latest lesson in this regard has come during the development of a bionic robot arm by German researchers. The technology is expected to be used in therapy to restore the use of injured limbs, and low-cost, flexible prosthetic devices. Such devices could be commercially available within two years.
The first commercially available Brain Computer Interface
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The evolution of the Computer Human interface may seem to be rooted in the infernal keyboard and its recent travelling companion, the mouse, but much work is being done in the areas of virtual worlds, voice recognition, handwriting recognition and gesture recognition to give us a new paradigm of computing. It now appears we are on the edge of another brave new virtual world – the direct interface between the brain and the computer is here. One of the Holy Grail’s of research, there are many such projects going on around the world at present. Now the German g.tec (Guger Technologies) group has taken the technology out of the lab and into the real world with a complete BCI kit, and amazingly, there’s also a kit for a pocket PC - a super-low-weight biosignal recording system “g.MOBIlab” is used to measure the EEG and the data processing, analysis and pattern recognition are performed on a commercially available Pocket PC or in this case, your windows PC. The first BCI system will enable the composition and sending of messages, and control of a computer game. There’s also an invasive (implanted) option still being trialled in the laboratory – this is significantly more effective abnd the system can already accept and process input from both the embedded array and the cap array. Though the first work in the area is focussed on enabling paralysed humans to communicate far more freely, the potential to enhance one’s communications quite freely is clearly not that far away. There’s also the potential unlocked by putting such a device into the hands of thousands of eager and capable amateurs who will no doubt broaden the understanding of the human mind with their pursuits. The BCI system is nominated for the 2007 European ICT Grand Prize.
The Bionic Eye approaches: the next generation of Retinal Implants
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February 19, 2007 Patients who have gone blind are a step closer to perhaps one day regaining some of their sight with the news that the United States FDA has approved a study to evaluate an artificial retina. Researchers at the USC Doheny Eye Institute are developing the technology that hopefully will help patients with retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration regain some vision using an implanted artificial retina. The announcement by Mark Humayun, professor of ophthalmology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and associate director of research at the Doheny Retina Institute, came at a press conference at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.
Pet prosthesis - Dolphin recovers swimming ability with artificial fin
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Bridgestone has developed a rubber fin for a dolphin that lost most of its tail fin to disease. The beneficiary of the technology is Fuji, a 235-kilogram 2.7 metre female at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. Fuji has regained nearly all of her swimming ability since receiving the new fin in what is believed to be the first-ever successful development of an artificial fin for a dolphin. Fuji has been in the Aquarium for 28 years, and the oldest of her three offspring, Ryu, 26 years of age, is the Japanese record holder for dolphin lifespan completely under human care. Fuji contracted the disease that caused progressive deterioration of her tail fin from the edge in October 2002. Amputating most of the fin saved Fuji’s life but left her unable to swim well. Volunteers at Bridgestone went to work on the rubber fin for Fuji in December 2002 and the company subsequently assembled a project team to tap the full range of Bridgestone’s rubber technology. The team delivered its first prototype in September 2003 and followed up with a second prototype the next month. A few years down the track and Fuji is fully recovered - that's her getting airborne, complete with her artificial fin.
The 2007 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize
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February 15, 2007 If there’s an absolutely golden imprimatur for the person-most-likely-to-succeed, it’s the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. Jerome H. Lemelson, one of the world's most prolific inventors, and his wife Dorothy founded the Lemelson-MIT Program funded via his own private philanthropic Lemelson Foundation, the Student Prize recognizes outstanding inventors, encourages sustainable new solutions to real-world problems, and enables and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention. Given that MIT attracts the very brightest students to begin with, the winner is usually a stellar high achiever and this year’s winner is already that. 2007 winner Nathan Ball's inventions include the Atlas Rope Ascender (see separate story) and a needle-free injection technology that will enable greater efficiencies in mass inoculations, both capable of saving many lives and both with many commercial applications. Last year’s winner Carl Dietrich is the CEO and CTO of his own flying car company Terrafugia. We’ve also written about Saul Griffith, the 2004 winner. All the winners and their exploits in this article.
The Intellidrug tooth implant
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February 2, 2007 Man has been producing and administering drugs since the neolithic period. Initially these drugs were administered orally mixed with a liquid with the advent of pills making inhalation and the intramuscular or intravenous injection following. These days, the majority of the world’s drugs are administered via pills – pills offer an accurate dosage, but they are so convenient that it’s often possible to forget when you’ve taken them. Chronically ill patients get muddled when constantly having to swallow different numbers of tablets at different times, while those with dementia simply cannot cope. Now EU researchers are developing a better, more accurate and more convenient way – a dental prosthesis capable of releasing accurate dosages into the mucous membranes in the mouth. As it can administer accurate micro amounts over continuous periods, the prosthesis overcomes the peak concentrations that occur with taking pills and even offers the ability to monitor and maintain consistent blood levels of any drug. What makes the Intellidrug prosthesis unique is that, unlike existing drug prostheses and implants, it is small enough to fit into two artificial molars. Inside the patient’s mouth, it is readily accessible and can easily be maintained and refilled.
Mobile X-ray unit capture the knee in motion
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October 3, 2006 Walking is a dynamic process, so it might come as a shock to realise that up to now the function of artificial knee joints has been analysed using static images of extended and bent knees. However, these were scarcely able to explain why certain patients’ prostheses were painful again and again. This is a big problem, because about one million artificial knees are implanted each year, 40,000 of them in Switzerland. The situation led researchers at the Institute for Biomechanics to analyse the problem in more detail and a mobile X-ray unit was developed that allows the knee to be x-rayed during normal walking. The purpose of the equipment is to help understand how an implanted artificial knee joint behaves during the everyday movement of walking.
First Bionic Arm fitted to a female patient
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September 15, 2006 The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), demonstrated its remarkable engineering and rehabilitation science know-how earlier this week by introducing Claudia Mitchell, the first woman to be successfully fitted with RIC’s Bionic Arm technology. The most advanced prosthesis of its kind, the RIC neuro-controlled Bionic Arm allows an amputee to move his or her prosthetic arm as if it is a real limb simply by thinking. The arm also empowers patients with more natural movement, greater range of motion and restores lost function. Using key learnings from the first successful Bionic Arm recipient, former power lineman and double amputee from Tennessee, Jesse Sullivan, RIC’s Bionic Arm initiative leader Dr. Kuiken and his team also have made significant advancements in the area of sensory feedback so that the patient can actually feel if they are touching hot or cold objects. We have excellent pictures and copies of Dr. Kuiken’s presentation to the media available in the image gallery. That's Claudia at top right in the main pic, the bionic arm bottom right, the nerve ending connections at top left and Dr. Kuiken and the first Bionic Man, Jesse Sullivan at bottom left.
LandWalker 3.4 metre exoskeleton hits the market
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August 4, 2006 Last year we reported on the world's first 340cm bipedal exoskeleton, the extraordinary Land Walker. The Sakakibara-Kikai Land Walker weighs 1000kg and shuffles along at 1.5kmh. Now Japan Times (via BornRich) is reporting that the Land Walker is on the market and selling made-to-order for 36 million yen (US$312,000). There’s a great video available here. Lots more detail in the original story.
Artificial limbs that walk naturally
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March 2, 2006 German scientists have developed a new type of prosthetic foot that imitates the natural walking motion so convincingly that you have to take a second look to realize its user is wearing a prosthesis. The foot is purely mechanical and entirely without elaborate electronics.
The Bionic Hand takes shape
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December 4, 2005 The popular television series The Bionic Man was probably the first inkling most of us had that one day man would be enhanced by machinery to better-than-new condition. The promise has been a long time in coming, but medical scientists across the world are advancing towards the implementation of bionic limbs. In July we reported on the work of Brazilian doctor Miguel Nicolelis, and now the CYBERHAND Project, which involves collaboration between six tertiary institutions across four countries (Spain, Germany, Italy and Denmark) has finally produced a bionic hand. The project team led by Paolo Dario with Professor Maria Chiara Carrozza leading the development of the hand, has been working on re-creating the natural link which exists between the hand and the Central Nervous System (CNS) and if all goes according to plan, the first of these bionic hands will be implanted inside a real human arm within two years.
Wanted: problems requiring technological solutions
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November 30, 2005 A new Channel 4 (UK) television reality show will soon be taking on some of life’s most persistent irritations by employing some ingenious engineering and science to help members of the public. “Men in White” involves three maverick PHD students who will tackle these challenges by building gadgets and inventions to solve the public's dilemmas, aiming to make science, technology and engineering more accessible to the general viewing public but most of all to make it cool! The age-old issue of unwanted parking tickets and car clamping is one of the problems that the Men in White have already started on, and some others under consideration include a silent hairdryer, a prosthetic limb that can power a phone or ipod charger and a personal airbag for a novice snowboarder. There’s even the suggestion of building a handy gadget to tell you when your girlfriend has PMT!So here’s your big chance – the show is seeking ideas for gadgets. Read on for details on how to get involved.
Eddie Paul - If it doesn't work, it just isn't finished yet
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Serial inventor Eddie Paul has created working prototypes of dozens of inventions. If you can conceive it, he can probably build it. Beginning as a self-taught welder, painter, metal fabricator and machinist he along the way turned from a customiser to a creator, designer and inventor. Initially, he did it to enable a change of circumstance – to move away from homelessness and violence and street gangs but he found that he learned quickly and had that uncanny ability to look at the machinery he was working on and make it better. For the last 20 years he’s been doing it for fun at the same time as earning a handsome living as his engenuity, easy going nature and delivery on time and on budget has become recognised far and wide. That's Eddie with his Circlescan camera for capturing 360 degree images at a Victoria's Secret shoot.
The Bionic Car project
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June 9, 2005 Bionics, the combination of biology and technology is a recent field of research which has nonetheless already made remarkable progress possible in different areas. Nature has provided ideas for high-strength materials, dirt-repellent coatings and even Velcro fastenings and this has lead to an interdisciplinary project combining biologists and engineers the Mercedes-Benz Technology Center (MTC) to develop the Mercedes-Benz bionic car - a concept vehicle based on examples in nature. Engineers looked for specific example in nature whose shape and structure approximated to their ideas for an aerodynamic, safe, spacious and environmentally compatible car. Using these examples, the team designed and constructed a vehicle with intelligent lightweight construction and extraordinary aerodynamics.
V8 Dolphin goes on and under the water
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Next time you see a dolphin playing off-shore, diving and breaching the water, take a careful look because it just might be a Bionic Dolphin, with a motor and a human inside. The Bionic Dolphin or VASH (Variable Attitude Submersible Hydrofoil) has been a plaything for eccentric Northern Californian techno-artists for the last three decades but a wave of publicity in the last twelve months has seen the developers commit to creating and selling a production version. Specs are not yet finalised, but how does a two seater, tandem-control techno-toy with 400hp Corvette LS2 engine sound? It's already looking like the wildest ride in the sea!
The Land Walker: the world's first 340cm bipedal exoskeleton
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Japanese machinery and robotics manufacturer Sakakibara-Kikai has released the first genuine bi-pedal exoskeleton – a landmark event and one which is certain to attract a lot of attention for the company. Mechanatrons and BattleMechs have long been the subject of scifi books, comics and movies with the promise of cyborg technology popularised by the smash sixties television series “The Six Million Dollar Man.” We’ve previously seen some celebrated exoskeletons in films such as Alien (Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley takes out the Queen alien in an exoskeleton), Star Wars (the AT-ST Imperial Scout Walker) and RoboCop (the ED209), but until now, the nearest thing we’ve seen in the metal was the 3.5 metre superhero exoskeleton Enryu from Tmsuk in Japan.
Sakakibara-Kikai’s Land Walker is just a tad shorter than Enryu at 3.4 metres, weighs 1000kg and shuffles along at 1.5kmh. Enryu is a lot faster than Land Walker but uses caterpillar-like tracks rather than legs to perform its chores – the strapping 3.5 metre Enryu will be called upon to rush into burning buildings, lift heavy objects and rescue people.
Taxis Hailed As 'Black Hole' For Lost Cell Phones And PDAs, As Confidential Data Gets Taken For A Ride
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January 30, 2005 A global survey of 900 taxi drivers shows thousands of Mobile Phones, PDAs/Pocket PCs and Laptops are forgotten in taxis every day. Though the survey was commissioned by a company with a vested interest in alerting users to the importance of mobile device security, the results are no less concerning, given that most people have confidential data readily available to an unscrupulous finder, at least some of which could be devastating to the career and financial well-being of the person losing the phone.
Toyota's i-unit Personal Mobility Concept
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A further evolution of the Toyota Personal Mobility (PM-01) concept called the "i-unit" is being featured at the Toyota Group Pavilion at EXPO 2005 in Aichi, Japan. Toyota is launching the "i-unit" and other concept vehicles and helper robots with a "Mobility Performance Show" to dramatise the future of mobile technology and its potential role in society under the theme of "the dreams, pleasure and excitement of mobility in the 21st century."
New 'Smart-fabric' inspired by pine cones
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November 26, 2004 A new smart-fabric derived from the properties of pinecones has been developed by the UK based Centre for Biomimetic and Natural Technologies. The fabric adapts to changing temperatures by opening up when warm and shutting tight when cold just like a pinecone's scales do in nature, and is just one of the emerging developments in the burgeoning field of "biomimetics". The "breathing" fabric is designed to stop the wearer getting hot or cold by adjusting itself to both internal and external temperatures. The textile is made up of a layer of thin spikes of wool, or another water-absorbent material, that opens up when it's made wet by the wearer's sweat. When the layer dries out, the spikes automatically close up again. A second layer underneath protects the wearer from the rain.
'BrainGate' Brain-Machine-Interface takes shape
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December 7, 2004 An implantable, brain-computer interface the size of an aspirin has been clinically tested on humans by American company Cyberkinetics. The 'BrainGate' device can provide paralysed or motor-impaired patients a mode of communication through the translation of thought into direct computer control. The technology driving this Brain-Machine-Interface breakthrough has a myriad of potential applications, including the development of human augmentation for military and commercial purposes.
Rehabilitation glove uses artificial muscles
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November 7, 2004 A rehabilitation glove powered by artificial muscles has won the recent AUD $10,000 British Council Eureka Prize for inspiring science. Designed by the Quadriplegic Hand Research Unit at the Royal North Shore Hospital, the invention will help people with permanent hand-movement loss to perform the daily functions most of us take for granted.
Scientists demonstrate a mind-controlled future
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November 5, 2004 Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have demonstrated that a monkey can feed itself with a robotic arm simply by using signals from its brain, an advance that could enhance prosthetics for people, especially those with spinal cord injuries. The robotic arm, or neural prosthesis, is about the size of a child's arm and moves much like a natural arm, with a fully mobile shoulder and elbow and a simple gripper that allows the monkey to grasp and hold food while its own arms are restrained.
Buell XB12S Lightning - something completely different
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The Buell XB12 Lighting is quite unlike any other roadgoing motorcycle, though it draws a logical comparison with the Cagiva Xtraraptor and Ducati Monster. All three involve massive fuel-injected v-twin motors with minimalistic styling, but the Buell does it differently … very differently. For starters, it has 20% more engine capacity, and produces more torque delivered lower in the rev range than its competitors. The real trickery behind the Buell is not the engine though – it is the radical forged aluminium chassis. The fruit of countless hours of computer simulation of the stresses which motorcycle chassis’ undergo, it is as rigid as it looks, and doubles duty as a petrol tank, while the massive swinging arm also multi-tasks as the oil tank.
Berkeley exoskeleton to enhance strength and endurance
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The mere thought of hauling a 70-pound pack across miles of rugged terrain or up 50 flights of stairs is enough to evoke a grimace in even the burliest individuals. But breakthrough robotics research at the University of California, Berkeley, could soon bring welcome relief - a self-powered exoskeleton to effectively take the load off people's backs.
Super 350cm exoskeleton
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Updated May 2005 Whenever robots are discussed, it seems the name tmsuk comes up. The small Japanese robotics company has collaborated with some of the biggest names in electronics to produce commercial robots in the last few years, and their concepts always seem to be innovative and imaginative, not to mention very useful. tmsuk is best known for its security robots Banryu and Artemis, a semi-humanoid security guard for hospitals and office buildings) so when Japan’s National Research Institute of Fire and Disaster, strategised its next generation response to earthquakes and the fires they cause and decided it needed a robot for high risk situations, tmsuk got the call. Built for business, the strapping 3.5 metre Enryu will be called upon to rush into burning buildings, lift heavy objects and rescue people. Neat heh!
Australian Bionic Eye approaches human trials
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Wednesday September 10, 2003: Researchers at the University of Newcastle are at the forefront of international research into ways that new technology can be applied to restore sight to the blind. By using a tiny electronic circuit to deliver controlled, electronic stimulation to the surviving nerve cells of the retina, the team hope to replace some of the physiological events that take place on a normal, healthy retina.
Exoskeletons: Wearable Robots
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The human body is unsurpassed in the complexity of its design, performance and efficiency, but there are definite limitations to what we can achieve with a frame that's around 6ft high - we can only carry so much weight, jump so far or run so fast before we reach our physical boundary. Machines that overcome these limitations have been with us for centuries, but we are only beginning to explore the possibilities of augmentation - extending our existing capabilities through wearable robot exoskeletons to create superhuman strength, speed and stamina.
Bionic eye offers hope to the blind
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Sandia National Laboratories have released a prototype "eye-chip" that may eventually achieve the miraculous goal of restoring sight to the blind. Part of an ambitious project involving several US national labs and Universities...
