Walking assist device with bodyweight support system

Designed for people still able to walk on their own, Honda Motor Co has unveiled its second experimental walking assist device.

The new walking assist device features a bodyweight support system which reduces the load on leg muscles and joints (in the hip, knees and ankles) by supporting a portion of the person’s bodyweight. The device has a simple structure consisting of seat, frame and shoes, and the user can put it on by simply wearing the shoes and lifting the seat into position.

A mechanism directs the assisting force toward the user’s centre of gravity and the ability to control the assist force in concert with the movement of the legs - both unique Honda innovations – make it possible for the device to provide natural assistance in various postures and motions.

Honda will now begin testing the device in real-world conditions to evaluate its effectiveness.

Researchers at the University of Aberdeen have designed an interactive program that can help sufferers of partial vision loss (hemianopia), which is caused by damage to the visual pathways in the brain after a stroke.

The Neuro-Eye Therapy (NeET) uses a medical device called the Vision Rehabilitation Program to repeatedly stimulate blind areas of vision using on-screen patterns.

Dr Arash Sahraie, University of Aberdeen, explained: “The basic principles behind Neuro-Eye Therapy are similar to those of physiotherapy following a stroke. If muscles are affected following a brain injury, patients are asked to repeat a pattern of limb movements in order to improve their mobility.

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Transplanting adult stem cells into mice with an illness like muscular dystrophy (MD) helps rebuild muscle structure and strength, a Harvard University study has shown.

Focussing on adult muscle stem cells, which specialise in generating new muscle cells in response to growth or injury, the Harvard team bred mice with a faulty dystrophin gene – the same problem which causes Dechenne MD in humans.

Adult stem cells were then taken from other mice and injected into the muscles of the diseased mice. Once the stem cells were in place, they spread throughout the muscle, producing new cells and improved the way it worked.

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Companies and research institutes are developing a vest that will read muscle tension and deduce stress levels at any given time, as part of the EU-funded CONTEXT project.

‘Wearable electronics’ are at the core of the vest. Sensors woven into fabric register the electrical excitation of muscle fibres, while thin conducting metallic fibres pass the signals to an electronic analysis system.

Human muscle tension changes with stress levels – the greater the stress, the more likely the muscles are to produce a synchronous twitching effect. Although this is barely perceptible, the electrodes register the change.

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