Rehab Archives

Lego is an attractive tool for biomedical engineers and scientists looking to create low cost custom mounts for their imaging equipment or looking to prototype novel prosthetic devices. We have covered a number of useful Lego medgadgets over the years, however few have been as complex as a new Lego prosthetic arm developed by engineering student Max Shepherd.

Max developed and built the 12 degree of freedom prosthetic arm from Lego components as a means to accurately mimic the full range of motion of a normal human arm and hand. The hand movements are powered using Lego pneumatics while the wrist pronation/supination, wrist flexion/extension, and elbow flexion/extension are powered by Lego motors.

The arm was designed as an above elbow prosthesis and is currently limited to lifting a couple of pounds. It is controlled by a set of simple joysticks and switches, and the pneumatic actuators can be driven via a Lego air compressor or a series of hand pumps. Max’s website and tumbler page give a neat overview of the system along with some of his other projects.

Max Shepherd’s website…

These days you can find ergonomic seats anywhere, like in cars or in the office. However, wheelchair users often don’t have ergonomic seats, despite the fact that they spend most of their days sitting in the same position in the same chair. Engineers from EMPA, an interdisciplinary research institution in Switzerland, Institute for Energy and Mobility of the Berne University of Applied Science, and r going, a Swiss rehabilitation company, have now successfully developed an ergonomic seat for electric wheelchairs.

Ergotherapist Roger Hochstrasser of r going came up with the idea because he noticed that wheelchair users develop a whole lot of complaints after spending whole days in the same position. As can be seen in the image, the backside of the seat is constructed in such a way that it simulates the structure of the human torso. The seat shell can also adapt to the contour of the user’s torso thanks to an articulated backrest. It can also rotate and tilt forwards and backwards.

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A team of developers, Saron Paz, Oleg Imanilov, Zvika Markfeld, and Tomer Daniel, have developed a novel sign language interpreter glove called the Show&Tell. The prototype glove, which was demonstrated at a recent Google developers’ event in Tel Aviv, incorporates a number of sensors to detect hand gestures which are then interpreted via a smartphone app to produce text. Flex sensors embedded in the fingers of the glove detect finger position while an accelerometer and tilt sensor detect hand movement and orientation as demonstrated in the video below.

It is not clear how many gestures the system can interpret and the device would seem to be an early proof of concept. However, it could offer a simple and cheap interface for people not versed in sign language to easily communicate with the hearing-impaired.

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