Prosthetics

Bionic-armed driver dies after crash

Update at 10:00 a.m. PDT: BBC News reported Friday that Christian Kandlbauer "was pronounced brain-dead in intensive care...and his life support was switched off." The story has been updated throughout to reflect this.

Christian Kandlbauer, who was fitted with an experimental bionic arm after losing both arms when he was shocked by a 20,000-volt power line in 2005, has died following a car accident in Austria.

In hopes of leading a normal life again, he had become a guinea pig in a four-year research project on a novel bionic arm.

The 22-year-old had fought … Read more

Elephant gets steel-fortified supertusks

Genesha, who goes by Spike, is a playful Asian elephant who lives at the Calgary Zoo in Canada. Not long ago, he broke one of his tusks above his old cap (which he'd been wearing since 2002) while playing too vigorously with a tire. To prevent further damage to the tusk, and to prevent infection, he was fitted with new, larger dental caps.

But these caps are stainless steel and weigh in at more than 46 pounds each, and break the record for largest dental caps that had been held by their predecessors. They were designed by students at … Read more

Mind-controlled bionic arm goes for test drive

If you've watched the movie "The Men Who Stare at Goats," you'd know it's all about covert efforts by the military to develop mind control. Well, good luck to them. However, it may be a bit premature to write off mind control as so much paranormal "X-File"-ish diddle-dee-doo, considering that Germany-based Otto Bock HealthCare has just done the seemingly impossible with a mind-controlled robotic arm.

The limb in question is attached to 21-year-old Christian Kandlbauer, an Austrian man who lost both his arms four years ago after being electrocuted by a whopping … Read more

Bionic hand can bear 200-pound loads

Touch Bionics has upgraded its bionic i-Limb Hand with a model that features controllable grip strength, miniaturized components, and rugged aluminum construction that can bear loads up to about 200 pounds.

To be unveiled next week at Orthopaedie + Reha-Technik 2010 in Leipzig, Germany, the i-Limb Pulse uses high-frequency electronic pulses to drive each digit motor to gradually tighten its grip on objects such as shoelaces or belts. This gives users better control over intricate grasping motions.

Users can control preset digit and grip postures, for instance a pointing index finger, with Bluetooth-enabled software called MyBioSim, which can also be used … Read more

3D printing changing prosthetics forever

MENLO PARK, Calif.--With America mired in two wars, injured soldiers are constantly returning home with missing limbs. But their path to useful--and attractive--prosthetics could be shorter than ever, thanks to 3D-printing technology.

And it's not just artificial limbs that may be going through a design renaissance: because of the infinite flexibility of digital designs, almost any kind of physical product could find wide new style, aesthetics, and custom models because of the machines, which can quickly, cheaply, and efficiently produce almost anything that can be imagined and crafted in a 3D modeler.

That was the message that industrial … Read more

BeBionic hand easy on eggs, tough on Coke cans

British prosthesis maker RSLSteeper is readying a myoelectric bionic hand that will let users perform detailed movements such as picking up wooden tiles in the game Jenga or grasping objects with a "power grip" feature.

Little information is available, but RSLSteeper says the BeBionic hand will have the world's first "powered wrist with rotation as well as flexion/extension." Lifelike silicone skin covering the hand will be available in 19 shades.

Myoelectric prostheses can be controlled by detecting electrical nerve signals in the skin of the remaining portion of a limb.

The hand's speed, … Read more

Artificial foot recycles energy with every step

Researchers at the University of Michigan and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have created a prosthesis that makes walking much easier on amputees than current options. The trick: an artificial foot that recycles the kinetic energy generated by walking.

The device, detailed Wednesday in the journal PLoS One, works by mimicking the natural push-off of a human ankle, using a microprocessor to control the device and capture the energy normally dissipated by the leg:

In tests on subjects walking with an artificially impaired ankle, a conventional prosthesis reduced ankle push-off work and increased net metabolic energy expenditure by … Read more

Why crutches may soon be relics of the past

Anyone who's ever worn crutches knows they are a pain at best. It's bad enough trying to walk, let alone surviving stairs, and we haven't even gotten to the underarm chafing.

Forward Mobility to the rescue. The Edmonds, Wash.-based company, which got its start manufacturing bicycles in the 1990s, is now designing and manufacturing a slew of medical mobility products, from a collapsible wheelchair to a seated scooter for foot and leg injuries. The Freedom Leg, released at MedTrade in October, functions like a hands-free brace. In the company's words:

Go beyond the limitations of crutches, wheelchairs, or scooters. It is truly an off-loading prosthetic that allows the user to fully integrate the device into their lives, giving them complete mobility. The user has the ability to accomplish all their normal day-to-day tasks without assistance, while at the same time keeping the strength in upper muscles of the injured leg.

According to "Emma" in the video, who broke her foot, the Freedom Leg transfers the weight of her step to her upper leg,… Read more

Hydraulic hand promises Hulk handshakes

Injured soldiers and people with disabilities might one day benefit from a hydraulic hand that doubles finger strength. Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory say a "mesofluidic" hand could be used to remotely disarm explosives and manipulate IEDs.

Mesofluidics is the study of applying pea-size hydraulics to applications requiring significant power in a limited space.

So far, the team at the Tennessee laboratory has developed an artificial finger made up of 25 moving parts. It can deliver 20 pounds of pinch force, about double that of a human finger, while remaining lightweight and … Read more