Functional Exoskeleton for the Disabled


(YouTube Link)


Hayden Allen hasn't walked in five years, but in this video, he's able to move around using a new type of exoskeleton called REX:

Called REX, short for "robotic exoskeleton", the legs weigh 38 kg (84lb) and are individually made for each user.

The first pair is expected to sell for $150,000 (£97,600) the equivalent cost of 20 standard wheelchairs.

The inventors claim that due to the upright and mobile nature of their creation, users will not suffer the burns, scrapes and bladder infections that can come with wheelchair use.


One of the great features of this design, as you can see in the video, is that it's fairly easy for a wheelchair user to mount the exoskeleton by him/herself.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Technology/Inventors-In-New-Zealand-Create-A-Pair-Of-Bionic-Legs-That-Could-Banish-The-Need-For-Wheelchairs/Article/201007315665822?lpos=Technology_Second_Home_Page_Article_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15665822_Inventors_In_New_Zealand_Create_A_Pair_Of_Bionic_Legs_That_Could_Banish_The_Need_For_Wheelchairs via DVICE

Comments (9)

Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

Anonmymousname yep. But what ... does that have to do with this chap???

This exoskeleton definitely is a start.
If it is the first one on the market, it is a milestone.
But it also shows very clearly what improvements will have to be made before it becomes the handy tool that really is needed before we'll see that on the streets:
- Less cost
- Less bulkyness (try to take one of these in your car to use it elsewhere...)
- way more speed (just waaaaait a seccccccc- I'm getting there ---- hopefully before closing-time or even this day still...........)
- More battery endurance
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I love that we live in a time where robot exoskeletons are plausible.

This thing looks too slow to be practical for significant walking, but hopefully that's an easy fix!
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Hi,

I'm from germany, and I did not hear that in our news so I searched the web for a german speaking version... and there seames to be none.

I tracked this info down to a british website of the questionable newspaper "The Sun":
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004092008,00.html

You can google the story in almost any language - except for german.
And everything you find bases on stories from UK.

is this a hoax made up by ALLAN HALL from The Sun? Or are german newspapers not interested in people eaten by spiders?
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Hmm, I think I'm skeptical about this one, too - not to be one of those nitpicky types, but I'm fairly certain that tarantulas don't actually spin webs ... Nevertheless it does make for interesting Sunday morning reading =)
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TOM's right. This story is a hoax. Germany has a famous tabloid. If this tabloid has not reported on that story, then it has been made up by the UK tabloid. Although BILD (the German tabloid) has been known to report hoaxes, too ...

And: geckos don't feast on rotten bodies.
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Btw, has anybody noticed that the article says that "the spiders and termites managed to escape when the heating elements exploded and opened the lids to their tanks"?

Sounds like those animals were kept in different tanks and that the heating elements exploded all at the same time? Doesn't sound logically.
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I have to call hoax too. Way too many things that don't make any sense. Giant webs draped all over him? To what purpose? What lizard would tear off flesh just to have it taken by a spider? And what spider would want dead flesh? No doubt. A fake story.
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I don't know if this is a hoax or not, but this "story" is... three years old!!!
It was reported on february 27th, 2004. You'll have to do a search on the archives for this one.
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No doubt, this is a hoax. I Live very close to dortmund, and i didnt hear anythung about that story. Like somebody wrote before, this seems to be a hoax originated by "the sun"...
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