Human exoskeleton suit helps paralyzed people walk
(Okay, further boosting my sci-fi geek cred, the first thing I thought of was the MI suit from Starship Troopers...)HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) – paralyzed for the past 20 years, former Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiof now walks down the street with a dim mechanical hum.
That is the sound of an electronic exoskeleton moving the 41-year-old's legs and propelling him forward -- with a proud expression on his face -- as passersby stare in surprise.
"I never dreamed I would walk again. After I was wounded, I forgot what it's like," said Kaiof, who was injured while serving in the Israeli military in 1988.
"Only when standing up can I feel how tall I really am and speak to people eye to eye, not from below."
Take a look at the slideshow accompanying the article. This is pretty cool stuff...
That is all.
5 comments:
"Okay, further boosting my sci-fi geek cred, the first thing I thought of was the MI suit from Starship Troopers."
LMAO Jay, my thoughts exactly..and I WANT one!
"On the bounce!" Woot!
Whereas my first thought was "Steve Austin, astronaut: a man barely alive ... Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology."
They don't call 'em "the formative years" for naught.
That suit is just un-freaking-believable! Amazing!
In the same vein, I saw a talk from the Neurobotics laboratory at University of Washington. It's amazingly fascinating! There's a great video of the talk over at http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2008/matsuoka .
Note to self: the Publish button is not the preview button.
What I was trying to say is: There's a video up on the New Yorker's site about a new field dubbed Neurobotics, which is the intersection of Neuroscience and Robotics. The talk is definitely worth watching, and full of super interesting ideas. It makes me sometimes wish I'd gotten into this level of tech while I was still a freshman in college and able to major in something like this instead of what I did.
Here's the video, check it out.
And further-further boosting your geek cred, you were obviously referring to the book, and not that horrific movie-thing.
Of course, I guess I helped myself out by knowing that... ;)
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