A Bionic Leg: Treatment for Stroke Victims

Commonly held medical wisdom concerning stroke victims is that once the patient has reached the one year anniversary of their event, very little if any, further progress is obtainable. It seems however that a start up in Sunnyvale CA believes differently.

Tibion has developed a battery-powered robotic, exoskeleton to aid patients in walking. The "Bionic" leg is not a full time device though. Tibion believes that if a patients who wear the device for 15 minutes at a time, over a three times a week period will make significant improvements, even after a protracted period of little or no therapy.

Wearing the Tibion leg promotes neuroplasticity (the brain's ability to rewire itself to repair damage) by providing feedback to the brain, this triggers the brain to lay down new pathways around the damaged areas.

Read the complete article on how the device works at San Francisco Xconomy

New Technologies for assistive control

Barry sends in an article that clearly demonstrates where the technology of assistive and adaptive equipment is going in the future. From the DailyMail online we read about a control device that consists of a magnet placed under the skin of the tongue. With the aid of a headset with magnetic field sensors that detects the magnetic tracer on the tongue which transmits wireless signals to a portable computer, the user is able to steer a wheelchair or operate a computer using only the tip of the tongue.

Why the tongue you might ask? Since the tongue is directly connected to the brain, it is unaffected by even high spinal cord injuries. Plus the fact that the tongue is very accurate and does not require a lot of thought or training to opperate aides.

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US Army toyed with telepathic ray gun

Shaun Saunders finds some chilling research done by the Department of Defense in New Scientist. It seems amongst some declassified documents detailing the US Army report on the biological effects of non-lethal weapons reveals plans for "ray gun" devices, which would cause artificial fevers or beam voices into people's heads. The report titled "Bioeffects Of Selected Nonlethal Weapons" which detail five different "maturing non-lethal technologies" using microwaves, lasers and sound. One bizzare device detailed a microwave gun to "beam" words directly into people's ears, have been tested. It is claimed that the so-called "Frey Effect" – using close-range microwaves to produce audible sounds in a person's ears produced documented results.

As a psychologist, Shaun had these comments

This technology is described in my forthcoming Mallcity sequel 'Return To Mallcity'...it is insidious, unethical, and has profound implications. For example, as a psychologist, how would a clinician seeing a client complaining of or referring to hearing voices in their head distinguish between schizophrenia, for eg, or external, covert influence such as described in this link? I think that most would naturally opt for the former, and relegate any claims of persecution by authorities or covert agencies to another box labelled 'paranoia'... Also, I would tend to think that such technology has most likely been around for some time (and would be an excellent means for descrediting someone, like a dissident, for example....)

New Contact Lenses Go Bionic

From LiveScience online click here for complete article

If you've ever wanted to be the Bionic Woman or a Terminator, new research may at least let you see with their eyes. Scientists have taken the first step toward creating digital contact lenses that can zoom in on distant objects and display useful facts. For the first time, engineers have installed an electronic circuit on a regular contact lens. The difficult part was grafting tiny electrical circuits, only a few nanometers thick onto the contact lenses, which are made of organic materials. Eventually, the technique could yield a plethora of gadgets. Perhaps drivers and pilots could see their direction and speed projected across their view, or people could surf the Web without looking at an external device's screen. Video gamers could immerse themselves in game landscapes directly in front of their eyes. Maybe the technique could even create sight aids for visually-impaired people.

submitted by Shaun A. Saunders