Each daylight , the strong-arm capabilities that technology grant us is incredible , and we ’re not just talk about texting friends at brighten pace , or the ability to see our energy wasting disease in real time . We ’re talking about the ability given to us by new tech in the wellness industry , either to supplement or restitute disability experienced by multitude across the globe .
Technology is render us rattling options for those of us with forcible limitation . From the blind to the deaf , from amputees to burn victim , gadgets are make a whole fresh realm of abilities .
Here are eight extraordinary engineering science that hold promise for an easier living .
quotation : Courtesy ofeyewriter.org
1. The Eyewriter
TheEyewriter is an great inventionfor people unable to apply their limb . It is a exercise set of glasses that can detect where a somebody ’s eye are look , countenance them to literally draw with their center . Created for multitude diagnosed with Amyotrophic sidelong sclerosis ( ALS ) , the designers ’ end for theEyewriter projectis to grow the most simple and cheap eye - tracking headset possible and open root the software so that ALS patient around the humans can create art and figure on their own .
The EyewriterfromEvan RothonVimeo .
2. The Luke Arm
Named as a Star Wars lead nod to Luke Skywalker , the Luke branch is one of the most modern prosthetic weaponry ever created . DARPA , the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency , grant $ 18 million in funding to Dean Kamen in 2005 to bring prosthetics into the 21st hundred , and male child did he . The Luke Arm is the first bionic upper branch to provide 18 degrees of exemption , a step up from its ancestors that only volunteer 3 degrees of freedom . It can be controlled by wiring the gadget to brawn or nerves , or with a foot foot pedal . It even has a haptic feedback sensor in the hand allowing the wearer to sense what kind of pressure they ’re putting into their grip . Here is a TV of Kamen show off the arm earlier this year .
Kamen is an telling inventor , coming up with several inventions destine to improve people ’s animation , from this Luke Arm to a weewee purifier that runs off of cow muck for people in developing nations . Check outmore about Dean Kamen on Planet Green .
3. A Dozen Different Legs
For amputees who have lost their legs , simply finding a prosthetic leg that allows them to move comfortably and freely can be a challenge . But what if you want to run in a battle of Marathon , or have legs that bet natural for a courtly event ? jock , way modeling and activist Aimee Mullins has helped get the possibilities for amputees to new heights . She shows how prosthetic wooden leg design can transform the body into everything from a work of art to a ace athlete , or simply help a mortal easy fuse in to a societal scene . Here is Aimee during a TED lecture on the theory curb within designing high tech prosthesis .
Click to view
4. Solar Powered Hearing Aids
hear aid are helpful for the hard of pick up but they ’re very expensive , especially when it number to the battery . For mass with minuscule money to spare or circumscribed access to replacement batteries , hearing aids are Laputan . That ’s whyHoward Weinstein created the Solar Ear , a $ 100 hearing aid with a solar powered battery that hold out as long as three years . Weinstein is hop to chip away at the col between the 600 million people who have hearing loss and the mere 8 million people who can afford a sense of hearing aid .
On top of allow for the talent of audio to those who might otherwise go without help , the Solar Ear undertaking extends help far into the indifferent residential area through work opportunities . All of the employees working on Solar Ear devices are indifferent .
The project is currently in Brazil , Botswana , West Bank Palestine , and will lucubrate to Mexico , China , India , Canada during 2010 .
5. Regrowing Stereocilia – The Hairs that Help You Hear
Stereocilia , or the petite hair inside our ears , are an inherent part of the earreach organisation . But overexposure to noise – such as experienced in euphony concerts or blasting melodic phrase from an iPod – can for good damage them , degrading a soul ’s sense of hearing over metre . Researchers at Stanford , however , have hit a find in growing hair - like cubicle that function just like those in our ear . This could intend solutions for damage hearing .
The enquiry is still about a decade away from propose a solution that can be used in world , but the voltage is there for help to restore hearing to those with haphazardness - induced listening loss .
6. Liquid-Filled Eye Glasses
Sometimes low tech is far more effectual than luxuriant gadgets . Such is the case with Josh Silver ’s spectacles that align to the wearer ’s correct prescription medicine simply with liquid . More or less liquid is added to the lense until the prescription is just correct for the wearer . The cheap glasses turn to an of import want of more than one billion the great unwashed in developing land worldwide who lack access to eyecare . Here is Josh Silver demonstrating how the glasses work and the shock they can have on people , from ameliorate their productivity to their quality of life .
7. Printing New Skin Directly onto Wounds
Skin is an organ that protects our bodies from contagion , and for burn victims , it ’s the loss of that protective barrier that is the self-aggrandising threat . cutis grafts – surgically travel healthy skin from one part of the physical structure to the burn area – is one way of aid convalescence . But what if newfangled skin could be create in an wink , spray on like a printer sprays ink onto a newspaper ? turn out , we can do that .
investigator at Wake Forest University have created a equipment that can spray new skin cells onto burn victims , supercede skin grafts as the standard discussion . The gadget can be wheel at once over a patient in a infirmary bottom , where a laser takes a reading of the combat injury ’s shape and size of it , and the exact amount of tegument cell is applied exactly where they ’re needed .
“ We literally print the cells directly onto the wound , ” said student Kyle Binder , who helped design the machine . “ We can put specific cells where they need to go . ”
The gimmick still needs to undergo testing by the FDA for approved use on humans , but it has proven to be effective on mice .
8. Wheel Chairs Powered by Fuel Cells and Solar Panels
Wheelchair technology has come a long mode for getting citizenry around . Ensuring they have a charge from a sustainable source of energy is part of that improvement . Over the last few years , we ’ve seenFuel Cell ( Hydrogen - Powered ) WheelchairsandSolar Powered Wheelchairspop up as more environmentally well-disposed ways of charging up the chairs . While they ’re not the most streamlined of chairs , using off - storage-battery grid charging is a self-aggrandizing plus and we ’re sure that in the next few years , we ’ll see even more advanced and less bulky ways of incorporating alternative energy into mobility .
Republished with permit fromPlanet Green
HealthMedicineScience
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , scientific discipline , and culture newsworthiness in your inbox day by day .
word from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
