Rehab Archives

IntelliWheels, An Automatic Gear Switching System for Wheelchairs

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jul 21, 2011 •

jxl0xesa IntelliWheels, An Automatic Gear Switching System for Wheelchairs
Scott Daigle, a graduate engineering student at University of Illinois, has developed an automatic transmission system for traditional wheelchairs. The system comes as two replacement wheels that attach to just about any wheelchair and work without any user interaction. IntelliWheels, the company that Daigle started to commercialize the wheels, has not brought them to the market yet, but there must be thousands of people hoping to try them out.

uddy2sxk1 IntelliWheels, An Automatic Gear Switching System for Wheelchairs

Recognizing the movements of the user, it automatically chooses the right gear for going uphill, downhill, and across rough terrains by monitoring how fast the user is going and how hard they are pushing.An automated system was crucial so the user wouldn’t have to expend any extra time or effort to change gears.The design is ideal for reducing load on the upper body while making gear shifting transparent to the user. Wheelchair users were consulted in developing the technology.

More: Smart wheelchair can switch gears…

Product page: IntelliWheels AGS

Neurology / Rehab

Robotic Arm Helps Stroke Victims by Playing Video Games

by Wouter Stomp on Jul 21, 2011
Robotic Arm Helps Stroke Victims by Playing Video Games

Researchers from Spain have developed a portable robotic device and a matching video game software platform for tele-rehabilitation, which they hope will help people with neuromuscular disabilities, such as stroke victims, regain function.

The ArmAssist, a project backed by a business initiative called FIK, consists of a mobile-based device that is connected to the user through an orthotic that records and measures the movements of the shoulder and elbow. Arm movements are translated to movements in a video game, thus helping with rehabilitation of the upper limbs. The device can be used at home, while the doctor can monitor the performance online through the quantitative results obtained from the games. The device is currently being tested in La Fe Hospital in Valencia.

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Geriatrics / Military Medicine / Psychiatry / Rehab

Researchers Create Driving Simulator For Patient Rehabilitation and Finding the Origin of the Lead Foot

by Scott Jung on Jul 14, 2011
Researchers Create Driving Simulator For Patient Rehabilitation and Finding the Origin of the Lead Foot

A team at Clemson University has developed a new driving simulator that is now is being used at 11 U.S. Army, Navy and Veterans Affairs facilities around the United States and Europe. However, this simulator isn’t meant for teaching platoons how to parallel park in an Iraqi desert.

Designed specifically for rehabilitative therapy, the technology allows patients to retrain their cognitive, perceptual and physical skills through safe and realistic driving exercises. As the development team included researchers from Clemson’s psychology department, the simulators were also created in mind to study factors such as the driving capabilities and limitations of the elderly. Such data could be useful in the future to develop safer and more efficient vehicles, as well as devices that would allow the physically handicapped to drive.

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in the news... / Rehab

Raising Cane! New Walking Stick Monitors Vital Signs, Provides Navigation

by Paul Pisklak on Jul 12, 2011
Raising Cane! New Walking Stick Monitors Vital Signs, Provides Navigation

The winner of the 2011 Fujitsu design award, a concept called “the aid,” brings a new dimension to the timeless walking stick.  In addition to being an ambulation support, this hi-tech cane monitors the walker’s pulse, blood pressure, and temperature.  These parameters are detected via the user’s wrist and displayed on an LCD screen on top of the device.

Created by Lithuanian designer Egle Ugintaite, the aid cane also has a built-in navigation feature than can help the user find a location of their choice or, in case of distress, send the current location to a central help center.

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Geriatrics / in the news... / Ophthalmology / Rehab

Smart Glasses to Help People With Poor Vision to Navigate, Recognize People and Things

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jul 6, 2011
Smart Glasses to Help People With Poor Vision to Navigate, Recognize People and Things

Oxford University is touting the work of its researchers who are building a special set of electronic glasses that may help people with all sorts of vision conditions. Cameras in the frame would analyze the scene ahead and active glass would display important things either in a different part of the frame of view or interpret it with colors, brightness, and basic representations. The idea is being profiled at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition where visitors get to see how the system would function.

From details from Oxford Science Blog:

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Geriatrics / Rehab

Wi-GO Helps Wheelchair Users Go Shopping

by Scott Jung on Jun 6, 2011
Wi-GO Helps Wheelchair Users Go Shopping

Wheelchair users should get mad props for tirelessly dealing with the tasks of life that go smoother with two feet. Despite milestones such as the Americans With Disabilities Act, there are some things that laws cannot easily fix. Take grocery shopping, for example. Such a straightforward task becomes a burdensome chore when one must deal with propelling both a wheelchair and a produce-filled shopping cart up and down the aisles of the local mega-mart.

Thanks to designer Luis de Matos of Portugal, and Microsoft’s miracle-working Kinect sensor, shopping may become a little easier for wheelchair users. He’s invented a grocery cart of sorts, which he calls the “wi-GO”, that literally follows you around. The wi-GO consists of a motorized cart with a laptop and Kinect sensor that tracks the wheelchair and follows close behind. The wi-GO was developed with wheelchair users in mind, but the system would also work well with the elderly and pregnant.

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Net News / Rehab

USC Researchers Develop “Guide Vests” for the Visually Impaired

by Scott Jung on May 30, 2011
USC Researchers Develop "Guide Vests" for the Visually Impaired

Researchers from the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California have developed a high-tech device for helping visually-impaired people get around. The system consists of a head-mounted camera connected to a computer that uses a special software, called Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), to convert images of the environment into three-dimensional spatial maps to determine a safe route around obstacles.

The route information is sent to a vest containing four motors on each side of a person’s shoulder and waist that vibrate if an obstacle is in his or her path.

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in the news... / Neurology / Rehab

Spinal Neurostimulation Helps Paraplegic Man Stand, Step, and Move Legs

by Scott Jung on May 20, 2011
Spinal Neurostimulation Helps Paraplegic Man Stand, Step, and Move Legs

When we last wrote about  UCLA’s attempts at using drugs and spinal neurostimulation to restore motor movement they had succeeded in bringing back leg movement in paraplegic rats. Since then, the drug component has been removed, the study has been expanded to include researchers from the University of Louisville as well as the California Institute of Technology, and the subject has changed to 25-year old Rob Summers who became completely paralyzed below the chest in a hit-and-run car accident in 2006.

Remarkably, the researchers have succeeded in restoring considerable movement to Summers’ paralyzed legs. The results were achieved using a Medtronic stimulator through continual direct “epidural electrical stimulation” of the lower spinal cord to mimic the signals that the brain normally sends to initiate movement. Because of the neurostimulator, along with extensive rehab and training sessions, Summers can stand on his own for four minutes, voluntarily can move his toes, ankles, knees and hips on command, and make repeated stepping motions on a treadmill.

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Rehab

InvoTek Safe Laser System Uses Light-Sensing Keyboard to Enable Communication

by Wouter Stomp on May 18, 2011
InvoTek Safe Laser System Uses Light-Sensing Keyboard to Enable Communication

InvoTek has launched the Safe Laser System, a device that uses laser technology to allow people with limited movement to write, communicate, and control their environment. It projects a low-power light-beam onto a light-sensing customizable keyboard. The device can generate a synthetic voice or output keystrokes to a computer. The laser pointer can be worn on the head, the hand, or even on a toe. Explanation of the technology from the product page:

The Safe-laser System is simple from the user’s perspective, but it is a sophisticated device. The large area laser-sensing surface is unique in the world, to the best of our knowledge, and was designed specifically to meet the needs of people with disabilities. It works in a broad range of lighting environments, from darkness to near direct sunlight.

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