Tag: DISABLED

Scientists have successfully demonstrated amazing advancements in prosthetics and other technologies for the disabled in recent years. Electrical impulse technology and mind control systems certainly provide hope for the future, but some analysts believe it could be decades before controllable prostheses and commercial, self-contained options become feasible. According to the BBC, however, ...

Haidar Taleb, a resident of the United Arab Emirates, embarks on a 200-mile wheelchair road trip this week, and he plans to completely fuel the journey with solar power. Taleb's mission, which will take him through all seven Emirates, is to reportedly "raise awareness of disability and sustainability as well as what we can achieve as individuals if we have the courage and determination to try." ...

Share As frivolous as new gadgets can often seem, the iPad has served a higher purpose in the Cain-Goldstein household of Brooklyn, where 7-year-old Owen, whose body has been long debilitated by a motor-neuron disease, is now reading books on his own. Watching as her son flipped through the pages of 'Alice in Wonderland' for the first time, Ellen Goldstein cried, "That is completely wonderful." ...

In San Francisco yesterday, Berkeley Bionics showed off its new eLEGS bionic exoskeleton, which will allow paraplegics to stand and walk without human assistance. The 45-pound robo-braces are made from steel and carbon fiber, and can operate for six hours on a single charge using lithium-ion battery packs, according to Engadget. The eLEGS are adjustable for users between 5'2" and 6'4" and ...

Last year, Toyota proudly announced the development of a new mind-controlled wheelchair, which was reportedly capable of interpreting a user's brain waves within a few milliseconds. Now, a group of Swiss scientists have taken the prototype one step further, by adding an extra A.I. touch to a new brain-controlled wheelchair. As Engadget reports, researchers at Switzerland's École ...

Strolling around with your wheelchair-bound loved ones might one day be a whole lot less stressful, thanks to a new robotic wheelchair created in Japan. Designed by researchers at Saitama University's Human-Robot Interaction Center, the wheelchair uses distance sensors and built-in cameras to keep track of a pedestrian's position, allowing the chair to remain on the left-hand side of its targeted ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... As part of an ongoing (and often ridiculous) modernization movement, the British Monarchy has created an impressive Flickr account featuring both current and historic snapshots. [From: Reuters and Flickr] The Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA) is attacking San Francisco's "overzealous" cell phone radiation labels ...

A pair of battery-powered bionic legs developed in New Zealand could help paraplegics to walk again, and, in turn, send wheelchairs to the junkyard. According to Engadget, the Rex robotic exoskeleton is operated using a simple joystick and control pad, and it can support the weight of a full-grown adult. Each pair of legs is custom-built to suit an individual's unique stature (the guy pictured ...

Facebook's population officially outnumbers that of the entire United States, and Twitter has obviously become firmly established within pop culture. That being the case, the creation of specifically marketed social networks capitalizing on the online networking boom should be completely expected. Some of the demographically geared services cater to white collar professionals and others to nerdy ...

One of the beautiful things about the march of technology is how it brings parts of the human experience to the disabled that they would otherwise have missed. Los Angeles' Tony Quan was able to write graffiti even though ALS has taken away his ability to move anything other than his eyes, while Brit Graham Hunt found the Paragolpher, which let him take to the putting green despite being confined ...

Video cameras are everywhere. Whenever you're in public, whether it be a subway station or in front of an ATM, chances are that there's a device somewhere capturing your every move. And everyone's pretty cool about it, for the most part. But when Big Brother unexpectedly moves into the private sphere, people get mad. But a couple in France are testing the limits of privacy with a proposed webcast ...

It's sleek, has four wheels, and looks like something Batman would ride, but this vehicle isn't meant for superheroes. This next-generation wheelchair will make life easier for the elderly and disabled. According to the AFP, the Japanese vehicle, called the Rodem, allows a rider to straddle the seat, steer with a joystick and motorcycle-style handles, and rest their knees and chest on cushions. ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2009/08/26/paralyzed-graffiti-writer-tags-again-with-eyewriter-design/'; It must be nice to have friends as kind and brilliant as those of Los Angeles graffiti artist Tony Quan. And Quan must be a great guy (and artist), to boot. Since 2003, Quan has had Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disorder that renders its sufferers largely paralyzed, while ...

When 24-year-old Graham Hunt of Essex, England first played 'Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008' on the Nintendo Wii, he got hooked on golf. After mastering the game in his living room, Hunt decided that he wanted to take his Wii-mote skills to the real golf course. There was just one problem. Since a neurological disorder struck him three years ago, he's been paralyzed from the waist down. After a ...

Late one night, a woman rolled up to a White Castle drive-through in St. Paul, Minnesota on her mobility scooter. No, this is not the beginning of a joke, and she was not reenacting a scene from a recent stoner flick. Ariel Wade just wanted some burgers. And since the lobby was closed, Wade, who suffers from degenerative arthritis in her back, had no choice but to roll up on her blue scooter. ...