Japan's HAL exoskeleton is joined by the ReWalk system - a partial exoskelton designed to allow users with mobility issues to walk with the help of crutches.

Berkeley's Lower Extremity Exoskeleton (BLEEX) is designed to assist soldiers, firefighters, or rescue personnel by supporting heavy equipment with the exoskeleton instead of the wearer's back. The 100-pound BLEEX rig plus a 70-pound backpack feel like a 5-pound load to the wearer.

Berkeley Bionics demonstrates the latest version, which is easier to move in than without.

Amputees can look forward to advances like the K3 Promoter, a prosthetic foot with tensioned steel cables designed to mimic the action of tendons and ligaments, or Dean Kamen's "Luke" arm. The following video shows the arm in action as its creators discuss its engineering versatility.

When a prothesis cannot be completely controlled via the user's nervous impulses — or a completely robotic arm with human-like control is desired — a biomimetic arm may serve. SENOPAC's robot hand combines a sensory "skin" with a controller inspired by the human cerebellum, capable of a quick snap of its fingers or the delicate handling of a chicken's egg.

SENOPAC's biomimetic arm — 'cause evolution is hard to beat.

Intel's working on a robotic hand that can feel objects before it touches them — relying on electrolocation to give the hand a "Pre Touch" sense.

The rest of the body has much to look forward to. Patients experiencing renal failure typically require dialysis — their kidneys are no longer able to filter wastes from the blood, allowing them to build up and throwing off the body's ability to regulate waste, acid, electrolytes — you name it. Dialysis artificially filters dangerous levels of wastes out of the blood, but it is an expensive, time-consuming procedure during which the patient is effectively bedridden. AWAK, the automated, wearable artificial kidney, would replace dialysis with a wearable device that operates continuously. It's not quite implantable, but a kidney that you wear is potentially much better than a kidney that you rent time on three times a week.

AWAK - "dialysis on the go".

In an attempt to make mind-machine interfaces work more smoothly, this micro-mechanical electrosensory robot wouldn't rely on the usual surgical technique for implanting electrodes in the brain, which is "stick an electrode into the brain and hope it ends up somewhere useful". This device is designed to make minute adjustments automatically to individual electrodes, nestling them firmly in the signaling "sweet spot" — and, if necessary, keeping them there as the architecture of the brain changes. It'll zero in on neurons using software similar to airplane-tracking software currently in use by the U.S. military.

A better brain-computer interface?

Advances such as these could serve to improve devices such as Neuro_Pace, an implant which detects oncoming seizures and short-circuits them, or the brain-controlled robotic arm that even a monkey can use:

Oh, and that artificial retina we mentioned last time? Now there's a wireless version. No word yet on what sort of security the wireless signal has. I rather like the idea of a future where you can wander around searching for public point-of-view feeds, though heaven only knows what the marketing people would do with that data.

From therapy to drug addiction, humans try just about anything to beat depression, so it figures that the first hardware hack for the brain would try to put smiles on our faces. But instead of piping in porn, the pacemaker uses electrode to fire low-voltage juice into the mood and anxiety centers in your brain, rewiring your neurons to take you to happy land.

The method used is called deep-brain stimulation, and it's been around for a few years, but it's still an experimental technology. So yeah, statements like this one from Dr. Ali Rezai chief of the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Neurologic Restoration are pretty exciting: "We're rewiring the brain in many ways," he says.

But the researchers admit they're still working out the kinks in things like which brain areas are best to stimulate, and how much electrical prodding those areas need. So if you're not debilitated with depression, you might wait a few years before lining up for surgery for your very own happiness implant.

Source: Associated Press

Now who wouldn't want an ambulance dispatch when they have a heart attack, but automatically summoning the authorities whenever your vitals go haywire? There are plenty of reasons that could happen, and most of them are pretty personal. There's also a proposal on the table to have your pill dispenser automatically alert the hospital when you haven't been taking your meds...

This sounds like privacy clusterf—k waiting to happen, but to their credit the folks at OfCom at least appear aware of the issues:

If the "in-body network" recorded that the person had suddenly collapsed, it would send an alert, via a nearby base station at their home, to a surgery or hospital.

However, Ofcom also gave warning in its report, Tomorrow's Wireless World, that the impact of such technology on personal privacy would require more debate.

That 'more debate' is definitely going to need some clarification. Still, in principle it's hard to deny the awesomeness of getting Bluetooth installed in your body.

Oh, and before Dennis Quaid goes and loses it completely, we'd better console him — despite their uber-coolness, the sensors cannot replace you, Dennis. Only you have the power, as the pilot of your miniature vehicle designed for intrabody-exploration, to push a button and rearrange Martin Short or indeed any one else's face to look like The Cowboy's (Pictured).

Source: The Times Online via LiveScience

Image: Firstshowing.net

Medgadget has the news:

All of the studies being presented used the Medtronic DBS system to stimulate a target within the brain called the ventral anterior limb of the internal capsule/ventral striatum (VC/VS), which is a central node in the neural circuits that regulate mood and anxiety.

"The data we are presenting on 43 patients is the result of more than 10 years of work across multiple institutions worldwide. These data represent the largest number and the longest evaluation of patients with psychiatric disorders who have undergone DBS implants, including some with long-term follow up," said [Cleveland Clinic neurosurgeon] Dr. Ali Rezai, who represented an international working group of physicians studying DBS therapy for treatment resistant OCD and depression. "While OCD and depression treatment with DBS require additional clinical evaluation research, our early open-label experience to date is encouraging and indicates that DBS may help severely disabled and suffering patients who have exhausted other treatment options."

Deep Brain Stimulation Useful for Severe Depression and OCD [Medgadget]