Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Berkeley Bionics: Introducing eLEGS
Watch this: What are your opinions?....Comments?
Hogg, C. (2010). Bionics: Introducing eLEGS. Digital journal. In the media. Berkeley. Retrieved Oct 7 2010 from
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/298635
Berkeley - A company called Berkeley Bionics has launched a new product called eLegs. The wearable, artificially intelligent bionic device allows people who have lost function of their legs to stand and walk.
Berkeley Bionics makes exoskeletons that "augment human strength, endurance and mobility." Today the company announced its new eLEGS product which is based on early work at the Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering lab.
Announced at a press conference in San Francisco today, eLEGS allow a disabled or paraplegic person to walk as though they have full control over their lower body. The company says its knee flexion technology is better than competing exoskeletons which translates into the most natural human movement available by robotics today.
“Many of the six million Americans who live with some form of paralysis today were highly active and at the top of their game when they sustained their injury," said Berkeley Bionics’ CEO, Eythor Bender. "As they research their options for increased mobility, they discover wheelchairs are pretty much it. This has been the only alternative – their only hope – for nearly 500 years.
Bender says eLEGS allow disabled people to stand up and walk for the first time since their injury.
The company says walking speed depends on the patient's aptitude and condition, but it's not impossible to reach speed of 2 mph (3.2 km/h). It can be made to fit most people between 5’2 and 6’4” and weighing 220 lbs or less, in minutes. In order to fasten oneself to the device, he or she uses Velcro straps, backpack-style clips and shoulder straps. eLEGS fits over the user's clothes and shoes.
The eLEGS exoskeleton is battery-powered and uses sensors within a gesture-based human-machine interface to determine movement. It pays attention to the gestures of the user and then attempts to determine the user's intentions by initiating movement. The company says a real-time computer monitors the sensors and input devices to coordinate every aspect of a single stride.
The device will first be offered to rehab centers to use under medical supervision, the company says, and clinical trials are set to start early next year in the U.S.
What would you do?
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/298635#ixzz14421yNMJ
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Of course, I would try quite hard to use the eLEGS!! I can't wait to see the development!
ReplyDeleteI think we should starts a hiking club for eLEGS users!!
Wallis, P. (2010). Successful transfer of electrons through cell membrane. Digital journal. In the media. Berkely. Retrieved Oct 24 2010 from http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/299339
ReplyDeleteIn what may well be a huge breakthrough, electrons have successfully been transferred across a cell membrane to an external acceptor along a defined path. Cell membranes are uncooperative things, and this is a major achievement.
To do this, you “grow the connections out of the cell” using the DNA template to create a clone of the conduit. It’s that easy. It also means that billions of these types of connections can be created.
Using conduits cloned from a bacteria which has evolved a mechanism for direct charge transfer to minerals, Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, the Berkeley team transferred the new genetic setup to a version of E. coli, and discovered it could break down iron and iron oxide nano particles.
This is no mere academic exercise, as Science Daily explains:
"This recent breakthrough is part of a larger Department of Energy project on domesticating life at the cellular and molecular level. By directly interfacing synthetic devices with living organisms, we can harness the vast capabilities of life in photo- and chemical energy conversion, chemical synthesis, and self-assembly and repair," said Jay Groves, a faculty scientist at Berkeley Labs and professor of chemistry at University of California, Berkeley.
The fact is that biological use of energy is also extremely efficient. The human brain operates on an average of about 14 micro volts. (If yours doesn’t, see your local supplier for a refund or exchange.) Most industrial processes imitate Nature, very badly and inefficiently, just on a larger, clumsier scale, particularly in relation to energy efficiency.
The net effect of this discovery is relative to other developments in technology. About ten years ago, electrical circuits were successfully grown using DNA. Self assembling nano machines and components have now been under development for almost as long. Photosynthesis has recently been duplicated in the lab, too, so this discovery is particularly timely for the current state of the technology.
The important thing about membrane penetration is that electrical circuitry is based on a series of systemic steps involving management of the electricity’s functions and operations, conducted in things like capacitors, resistors, etc. This works fine on ultra-inefficient massive voltages, but for true energy efficiency, these functions need to be scaled down, not up. At cellular level, cell “batteries” like mitochondria are local energy sources.
The potentials are enormous. A thing like a synapse in the human brain is perfectly capable of creating multiple values using those 14 micro volts, including multi-level logic, art, and science in a membrane-based bio electrical environment some people optimistically refer to as a brain. Neural impulses travel at about 700 meters a second, thousands of times faster than necessary, flawlessly, through both the brain and the autonomic nervous system. Sound a little more efficient than the average 3 point plug?
We’ve got a lot to learn about this sort of technology, and this is starting to look like where we start learning. Stick around, folks, this is going to be interesting. Don’t be surprised if your next computer comes in a seed packet.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/299339#ixzz14L6a6EZX