In this episode, we explore a groundbreaking neurotechnology that boosts memory without the need for invasive surgery potentially helping people all over the world struggling with spatial memory.

Podcast: Non-invasive Memory Booster

A leap forward in artificial intelligence control from Georgia Tech engineers could one day make robotic assistance for everyday activities as easy as putting on a pair of pants.Researchers have developed a task-agnostic controller for robotic exoskeletons that’s capable of assisting users with all kinds of leg movements, including ones the AI has never seen before.It’s the first controller able to support a dozens of realistic human lower limb movements, including dynamic actions like lunging and jumping, as well as more typical unstructured movements like starting and stopping, twisting, and meandering.Paired with a slimmed down exoskeleton integrated into a pair of athletic pants that was designed by X, “The Moonshot Factory,” the system requires no calibration or training. Users can put on the device, activate the controller, and go.The study was led by researchers in the <a href="https://me.gatech.edu/">George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering</a> (ME) and the Georgia Tech <a href="https://research.gatech.edu/robotics">Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines</a>.Their system takes a first big step toward devices that could help people navigate the real world, not just the controlled environment of a lab. That could mean helping airline baggage handlers move hundreds of suitcases or factory workers with heavy, labor-intensive tasks. It could also mean improving mobility for older adults or stroke patients who can’t get around as well as they used to.“The idea is to provide real human augmentation across the high diversity of tasks that people do in their everyday lives, and that could be for clinical applications, industrial applications, recreation, or the military,” said <a href="https://me.gatech.edu/faculty/young">Aaron Young</a>, ME associate professor and the <a href="https://www.epic.gatech.edu/">senior researcher</a> on a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08157-7">study describing the controller published Nov. 13 in the journal Nature</a>.What made it possible for the controller to accurately boost hip and knee joint movements was a whole new approach to the data that feeds the machine learning algorithms.Instead of predicting the task the user is trying to do — say, climbing stairs or lifting a heavy object — the researchers used sensors to instantaneously detect and estimate the human user’s internal joint efforts. That allowed the hip and knee exoskeleton device in the study to provide a 15% to 20% boost to those joints, making it easier for users to do those activities.“What's so cool about the system is, you put it on and now it's part of you. It's adapting to you. It's moving with you. There's no dependency on exactly what you're doing for the exoskeleton,” said Dean Molinaro, a lead author of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08157-7">Nature study</a> and a former robotics Ph.D. student. “This was kind of a big swing to say, we're willing to not only take a different crack at how we approach exoskeleton control, but also to bank on machine learning as that translator. All the pieces that had to align to realize this type of task-agnostic control felt like a bunch of tiny miracles.”<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1731548452881-Exoskeleton-AI-Controller-Keaton-Scherpereel-Aaron-Young-Dean-Molinaro-Ethan-Schonhaut-9142-v.webp" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The research team included, left to right, Keaton Scherpereel, Associate Professor Aaron Young, Dean Molinaro, and Ethan Schonhaut.The controller described in Nature builds on previous work where the team <a href="https://coe.gatech.edu/news/2024/03/universal-controller-could-push-robotic-prostheses-exoskeletons-real-world-use">created a unified exoskeleton controller that could support walking, standing, and climbing stairs or ramps without user intervention.</a>Their new controller expands far beyond those activities and was able to offer seamless assistance across the range of natural human movement, including the transient and sometimes halting motions common in daily life. It also generalized, meaning it worked for activities that weren’t part of the data used to train the algorithms.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UVfo__lCNfo?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>The team collected data on 28 different tasks. They included climbing stairs and ramps, running, walking backwards, jumping up or across, squatting, lifting and placing a weight, turning and twisting, tug-of-war, and calisthenics.Even with the added weight of the exoskeleton, users expended less energy, and their joints didn’t have to work as hard on most of the tasks the researchers tested. On the few activities with no measurable benefit from the exo, users still experienced significant compensation for the extra weight of wearing the device.Most work on exoskeleton devices has focused on a single joint. Devices for both the hip and knee typically are slow and show little metabolic benefit. Using biological data from the joints as the key driver overcomes those limitations.“Coordinating two joints, and being able to augment both simultaneously, is something engineers have struggled with because of the codependency on the joints,” Young said. “That's a beautiful part of our strategy that relies on internal human states: you can then coordinate the two joints naturally and rather effortlessly. That's huge from an engineering standpoint.”The exoskeleton involved in the group’s trials also is new. Instead of a bulky, robotic device worn on top of a user’s clothes, the device was integrated into a pair of athletic pants. It was designed by <a href="https://x.company/">X, "The Moonshot Factory,"</a> an initiative formerly known as Google X that aims to invent radical technologies to solve big problems. X helped fund the research and worked with Young’s team to create the “clothing-integrated” exoskeleton.Work on the “exo-pants” idea continues at <a href="https://www.skipwithjoy.com/">Skip, a company spun out of X</a> and where the study’s other lead author, Keaton Scherpereel, is now an exoskeleton control engineer. The idea is to move this kind of robotic assistance — in terms of both function and ease of use — toward the real world. Slipping on a pair of pants that can support the whole range of daily movement would be far more practical than the reality today.Next steps include finding ways to incorporate other physiological data that could further improve the controller and adapting the controller for different devices.“We’ve proved this approach works really well, but it requires a lot of data,” said Scherpereel, also a former robotics Ph.D. student. “What happens when we have a different exoskeleton, change the design of the exoskeleton, or move sensors? We want to handle those changes in a way that allows us to take advantage of the data we’ve already collected.”Along with Molinaro, Scherpereel, and Young, the research team included Ph.D. student Ethan Schonhaut, Georgios Evangelopoulos at Google, and <a href="https://bouve.northeastern.edu/directory/max-shepherd/">Max Shepherd</a> at Northeastern University.“This is the floor of how good we can do and still the very early phases of these kinds of controllers,” Young said. “Now that we have these amazing deep learning algorithms and this fundamental idea of using the internal human state, the capabilities are pretty endless for where this technology can go.”<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1731548500304-Exoskeleton-AI-Controller-Pants-9137-v.webp" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The prototype robotic exoskeleton use in the research was integrated into a pair of athletic pants. X, The Moonshot Factory, worked with Young’s team to create the “clothing-integrated” exoskeleton and helped fund the team's AI controller research.<hr><h3 id="isPasted">About the Research<a title="Permalink to this item" href="https://coe.gatech.edu/news/2024/11/no-matter-task-new-exoskeleton-ai-controller-can-handle-it#about-the-research"></a></h3>This research was supported by X, The Moonshot Factory, Georgia Tech’s Partnership for an Advanced Computing Environment (PACE), and the U.S. National Science Foundation, grant Nos. 2233164 and 1830215. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any funding agency.CITATION:&nbsp;Molinaro, D.D., Scherpereel, K.L., Schonhaut, E.B. et al. Task-agnostic exoskeleton control via biological joint moment estimation. Nature (2024).&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08157-7">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08157-7</a>

A new exoskeleton controller developed by Georgia Tech engineers works for dozens of dozens of realistic human lower limb movements, including dynamic actions like tug-of-war and jumping, as well as more typical unstructured movements like starting and stopping, twisting, and meandering. Photos & Video: Candler Hobbs

Researchers created a deep learning-driven controller that helps users in real-world tasks, even those it wasn’t trained for.

No Matter the Task, This New Exoskeleton AI Controller Can Handle It

In this episode, we explore the versatile knee exoskeleton designed to enhance safety during lifting by using a novel design that improves the freedom of movement and safety in comparison to current state of the art.

Podcast: Wear This Exoskeleton & Save Your Knees!

This article was discussed in our <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Next Byte podcast</a>.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/3ddb6ef3-e0b1-4983-87ca-84cf2ed8fe2e?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> The full article will continue below.<hr>A set of knee exoskeletons, built with commercially available knee braces and drone motors at the University of Michigan, has been shown to help counteract fatigue in lifting and carrying tasks. They helped users maintain better lifting posture even when tired, a key factor in defending against on-the-job injuries, the researchers say.“Rather than directly bracing the back and giving up on proper lifting form, we strengthen the legs to maintain it,” said <a href="https://gregg.engin.umich.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Robert Gregg</a>, U-M associate professor of robotics and corresponding author of the study in Science Robotics. “This differs from what’s more commonly done in industry.”Already workers who lift regularly, such as in construction and manufacturing, may use back braces. Back exoskeletons, which use springs or motors to help with lifting, are an emerging technology. But devices supporting the back assume unsafe lifting, or stooping, and back exoskeletons tend to be cumbersome devices that must be deactivated to allow motions that aren’t part of the lifting task, Gregg said.The Michigan team says their knee exoskeletons are the first to support the quadriceps muscles instead, which provide the bulk of the force in safe squat lifting, as a less intrusive way to help protect workers from back injuries. Study participants tested them out with lifting and carrying tasks using a 20 lb kettlebell.The tasks included lifting the weight off the ground and setting it down again, and lifting and carrying the weight on flat ground, up and down an incline, and up and down stairs. The study found that, after becoming fatigued, the participants kept better posture with the help of the exoskeleton, and they also lifted faster—just 1% slower than their pre-fatigued paces, versus 44% slower without the aid of the exoskeletons.&nbsp;“This is especially important when a worker has to keep up with a conveyor belt. Usually, when a worker is fatigued, they’ll keep up with that rate, but with a compromised posture. They’ll bend their back more, and that’s when injuries are most likely,” said Nikhil Divekar, a postdoctoral research fellow in robotics at U-M and first author of the study.&nbsp;The participants felt the benefit, too—they mainly said they were quite or very satisfied, with the exception of walking on level ground, for which they were more or less satisfied. This tracks with the small amount of assistance required by the quadriceps during this relatively easy task; Gregg described it as just enough support to counteract the weight of the exoskeleton.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzI3MzkzMDMxNzk5LWtuZWUtZXhvcy12ZXJ0aWNhbC5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Emily Keller, a doctoral student in robotics at the Locomotor Control Systems Lab, University of Michigan, demonstrates the knee exoskeletons on the steps outside of the Ford Robotics Building at U-M. Photo: José Montes-Pérez, Robotics, University of MichiganOne of the keys to making the exoskeleton so wearable is the motors and the way that they are geared, which enables users to swing their knees freely for a natural gait. The other is the software, which predicts what kind of assistance the user needs by measuring the angle of the knee joint, the orientations of the thigh and lower leg, and the force picked up by a sensor in the user’s shoe.&nbsp;With these three measurements from both legs, it’s possible to work out what motion the user is trying to do, and how much assistance to give. These measurements were taken 150 times per second, enabling the exos to move seamlessly between activities.&nbsp;This approach is in contrast to many exo controllers, which follow predefined patterns for a limited set of tasks. Switching tasks can be a problem for these controllers, and they may need a full second to figure out what the user is trying to do, Gregg said.“If your exo is trying to walk upstairs, and you’re trying to walk downstairs, that could be a problem, right?” he said.The new controller also pairs a physics model with machine learning, which prevents the exoskeleton from making unexpected moves if the user begins behaving differently than any activity included in the controller’s training data.The lab prototypes cost about $4,000 per pair, so Gregg anticipates that if the exoskeletons were produced at scale, they might cost about $2,000 per pair.The 10 study participants, five women and five men, did all the tasks on two different days, one day fresh and the other fatigued. To induce fatigue, each participant performed a series of squat lifts with the kettlebell until they couldn’t continue without a long break between repetitions. All participants had experience with proper squat lifting techniques.&nbsp;The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.The team has applied for patent protection with the assistance of U-M Innovation Partnerships and is seeking partners to bring the technology to market.Gray Thomas, Avani Yerva and Hannah Frame contributed to the study.Gregg is also an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering.

Helping out the quad muscles kept study participants lifting safely despite fatigue, with an algorithm that smoothly shifts between lifting and carrying tasks.

Versatile knee exo for safer lifting

The High-Temperature Carbon-Fiber 3D Printing Challenge invited engineers and designers to submit ideas on how to leverage cutting-edge materials from Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials. Participants in the challenge were asked to incorporate the strength and properties of the KyronMax&reg; carbon-fiber 3D printing filament with the flexibility and sustainability of 3D printing in their design.We are composing a&nbsp;series of articles featuring the finalists and winners of the challenge.In this article we showcase the work of <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinkocher/" target="_blank">Robin Kocher</a> from Human Earth Industries an upcoming player in the micro-engineered suits domain.<h2 dir="ltr">Suits for the future</h2>The specialized suits designed by Kocher, aims to protect against harsh weather conditions. The suits are primarily intended for providing support during disaster relief, extreme sports, and various outdoor activities. They have multiple layers which can be customized based on the activity.&quot;We visualize the company in two parts. The primary focus behind Human Earth Industries is facilitating a change in society, imparting a sense of awareness in people regarding the 17 sustainable development goals, and spreading the word of change. The second part is the engineering aspect of it, where we aim to revolutionize the fashion technology industry,&quot; said Kocher. The idea for developing the suits was first conceptualized when Robin was still a student. As a gaming enthusiast, he wondered how the advanced suits in video games would be like in the real world. &quot;My interest in video games and science fiction helped me design the fabrics for the prototype. The ideas stemmed mainly from publicly available research,&quot; he added. &nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjY5NTc0MzQxNDM4LWltYWdlMS5wbmciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The suit imagined by Human Earth Industries. Image credit: Human Earth Industries<h2 dir="ltr" id="isPasted">Sustainability is the top priority</h2>The suit has a customizable design where one can alter various functionalities. It would be possible to insert a layer that can measure the heart rate, blood oxygen, and ambient conditions. Additionally, another layer with a pathfinder module and smart ventilation (heating and cooling), primarily geared towards disaster relief activities would also be incorporated. &quot;The material that we use for the suits are not particularly environmentally friendly. I want to make products that can be used for a long time and the suits are designed to last a lifetime. I want people to pass on the suits to the next generations. This is one of my approaches to sustainability. The components would be made from bio-compostable products in the future,&quot; said Kocher.<h2 dir="ltr">Diversifying functionalities with carbon-fiber</h2>The early-stage startup wants to engineer their specialized suits for various operations. For instance, Robin has deep-dived into the topic and has identified the risks involved for horseback riders.He is developing a prototype of a safety vest with a carbon fiber layer that protects the riders from potentially severe falls. This vest can also be purposed for other activities such as skiing and motorbiking.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjY5NTc0MzkzODMxLWltYWdlMi5wbmciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><h2 dir="ltr" id="isPasted">MCAM&rsquo;s Growth Garage challenge pushed design ideation</h2>When we asked Robin, what the most challenging criteria of the submission was, he said: &quot;The criteria pertaining to the technical requirements was quite impressive, especially when we had to work with high-temperature requirements. When we started designing the product, we had to make sure that it satisfied the sustainability as well the high temperature criterion. It helped me visualize the incorporation of the carbon fiber layer in the specialized suits. The challenge was quite an enjoyable experience for me.&quot;Kocher is impressed by Mitsubishi Chemical&rsquo;s focus on sustainability and conscientious practices. It was also one of the reasons that compelled him to enter the challenge. &quot;As a self-financed startup, it is always nice to receive support from organizations that can help us take our product to the next level, in terms of design, manufacturing and product upgrades. I would love to take part in the new challenges and create an awareness of thriving in the industry by consciously contributing back to the environment and society,&quot; he said.Follow <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/growth-garage-mcam/" target="_blank">Growth Garage</a>&#39;s&nbsp;LinkedIn page for more interesting stories about 3D printing entrepreneurs in various fields.<h2 id="isPasted">The Composite Engineering Challenge</h2>We are inviting innovators, entrepreneurs, and early adopters at universities, (pre-) startups, and scaleups that need fiber-reinforced composites to realize their prototype, part, product, or application.&nbsp;We welcome projects, programs, and companies in the field of new mobility (EV, e-motor, battery casing, etc.), autonomous (delivery) vehicles, people movers, robotics, aerospace, space, bicycles, UAV, AAV, bionics (wheelchairs, exoskeletons, prosthetics), alternative energy (production, storage, transport), self-sensing or self-healing, sport &amp; leisure, alternative (low carbon footprint) fibers and more!The winning entry will be rewarded with a partnership with Growth Garage,&nbsp;Business Incubator of the MCG Advanced Materials Division.&nbsp;This partnership package is valued at $25,000 and will be tailored to the winning team&rsquo;s needs according to their current business and product development stage.&nbsp;<a class="button-main-action" href="https://wevlv.co/homepage-banner" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">READ MORE ABOUT THE CHALLENGE HERE.</a><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top"><h2>Key Dates</h2><table><tbody><tr><td>Composite Challenge Launch&nbsp;</td><td>Monday, October 24th, 2022</td></tr><tr><td>Challenge Close&nbsp;</td><td>Sunday 22 January 2023&nbsp; </td></tr><tr><td>Finalists Announced&nbsp;</td><td>Wednesday 1 February 2023&nbsp; </td></tr><tr><td>Wevolver Community Vote&nbsp;</td><td>From 1-12 February 2023&nbsp; </td></tr><tr><td>Winners announcement&nbsp;</td><td>Tuesday 21 February 2023&nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjY5NTc0NDUyMDMzLWV5SmlkV05yWlhRaU9pSjNaWFp2YkhabGNpMXdjbTlxWldOMExXbHRZV2RsY3lJc0ltdGxlU0k2SW1aeWIyRnNZUzh4TmpZMk5UazRNakEyTlRnMExVMURSeUJzYjJkdklHSmhibTVsY2k1cWNHY2lMQ0psWkdsMGN5STZleUp5WlhOcGVtVWlPbnNpZDJsa2RHZ2lPamsxTUN3aVptbDBJam9pWTI5MlpYSWlmWDE5LndlYnAiLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">

Carbon fiber fashion aims to assist humans to endure extreme weather and activities. 


Augmenting human endurance with carbon fiber suits

<a href="https://brooksrehab.org/" target="_blank">Brooks Rehabilitation</a> recently announced that the MagTrack study, a collaborative research endeavor with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ece.gatech.edu/" target="_blank">Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering</a>, has been successfully completed. Feedback from the Brooks clinical team and its patients has allowed Georgia Tech engineers to transform their early research prototype into a user-ready version that was tested by more than 17 power wheelchair users living with tetraplegia — a form of paralysis caused by spinal cord injury that affects the arms, hands, trunk, legs, and pelvic organs.The collaboration between the Brooks and Georgia Tech teams has created a path to a first-of-its-kind, innovative application for individuals living with disabilities. The teams — comprised of physicians, clinical therapists, and engineers — brought together multidisciplinary expertise in advanced science, technology, and clinical rehabilitation.“We met with the Georgia Tech team years ago, when we first heard of the research breakthroughs they were achieving for wheelchair users. Brooks is constantly looking for technology that is useful for our patient population living with spinal cord injuries and mobility impairments. To see where the MagTrack project has advanced even just since the early stages of this study is incredible,” said Geneva Tonuzi, medical director of the spinal cord injury program, the spinal cord injury and related disorders day treatment program, and Cyberdyne HAL Therapy at Brooks Rehabilitation.As a result of this engineering-clinical collaboration,&nbsp;<a href="https://magtrack.ece.gatech.edu/" target="_blank">MagTrack</a> was created as a cutting-edge assistive technology that enables power wheelchair users to control their connected devices (e.g., smartphone, computer) and drive their power wheelchairs using an alternative, multimodal controller. In addition, the assistive device is designed to be wearable, wireless, and adaptable to the user’s specific condition.The MagTrack study is earning the praise of patients and scientists alike and has been&nbsp;<a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9540352" target="_blank">published</a> in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.embs.org/tbme/" target="_blank">IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering</a>. From the beginning, the MagTrack studies have tested the performance of the Head-Tongue Controller (HTC), an earlier version of the MagTrack technology, on its ability to perform complex human-machine interactions that will enhance users’ quality of life. The MagTrack’s HTC allows the user to perform a variety of complex tasks in a single controller through the use of tongue and head movements, which are detected by eyewear and a tiny tracer that is temporarily glued onto the tongue using Glustitch’s&nbsp;<a href="https://periacryl.com/" target="_blank">PeryAcryl</a> bio-compatible adhesive. Target-specific commands are generated from these motions using advanced data processing and machine learning models. This combination of input modalities allows the user to perform a variety of daily functions with customizable control, from performing complex computer tasks (e.g., mouse navigation, scrolling, drag-and-drop) to completing advanced driving maneuvers when connected to a power wheelchair.In the latest study, researchers connected the MagTrack technology to a single power wheelchair donated by Quantum Rehab, and recruited 17 patient volunteers from Brooks Rehabilitation to test the functionality and usability of the device by completing a set of both simple and advanced driving tasks. Results showed that new users of MagTrack can complete these tasks as fast, and sometimes even faster, with the MagTrack’s HTC rather than their personal, alternative controller. Since the study session lasted less than 3 hours — and in a power wheelchair that wasn’t their own — it is anticipated that participants would be more proficient, and thus perform better with MagTrack, if they were given more time to familiarize themselves with its multimodal capabilities and using their own power wheelchair."Working with all of the participants has been very rewarding,” said Jesse Milliken, speech-language pathologist in the spinal cord injury program at&nbsp;<a href="https://brooksrehab.org/" target="_blank">Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital</a>. “Each patient who came in was someone who has been directly affected by a spinal cord injury and who can truly benefit from this technology. It was amazing to see how their faces lit up when they saw they were able to control their wheelchair with such ease and comfort. They all said they can see this improving their day-to-day lives if it were available to them. It's been such an honor to be a part of this process and see the work and thought process behind such advanced technology." Patients from the&nbsp;<a href="https://brooksrehab.org/" target="_blank">Brooks</a> spinal cord injury program who have participated in phase three of the study call the advancement “exciting” and a “great system that can be used for so many things.” After experiencing the technology themselves, they believe it will “touch the lives of those who are able to use it.”To date, the head array and sip-and-puff are the most common alternative controllers recommended by physical therapists to individuals living with tetraplegia, while specialized switches and joystick technology are available for those with mobility in their upper extremities. These technologies were developed many decades ago for the basic need of controlling a power wheelchair. Since then, a lack of innovation in this field has hindered these assistive technologies from adapting to today’s technology. Furthermore, they are affixed to the wheelchair, which becomes inaccessible once the user is transferred to a bed, a couch, or any location away from the wheelchair. Therefore, there is a growing need for this population to have access to new, alternative controllers that will enable them to be active members of an interconnected digital world.“The trajectory of the MagTrack study shows an unprecedented possibility for the advancement of independent function as well as mobility for electric wheelchair users. Our team and partners are energized and motivated by the recent patient trials to continue to push this technology and its capabilities as far as possible. This technology can significantly improve people’s lives. We will continue to work to see these advances in assistive technology come to life,” said Georgia Tech’s Omer T. Inan, director of the Inan Research Lab, Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Chair in Bioscience and Bioengineering, associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and adjunct associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.“MagTrack is an innovative assistive technology aimed for those living with physical paralysis to have access to more complex human-machine interactions, which will facilitate the control of more devices in their everyday life that they cannot easily use otherwise,” said Nordine Sebkhi, postdoctoral researcher at the Inan Research Lab in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “The development of our wearable alternative controller eliminates the need for having multiple assistive technologies, replacing them with a single multimodal and integrated system.” Sebkhi is the co-creator of MagTrack and the technical lead in the development of this assistive technology.As a result of these studies,&nbsp;<a href="https://magtrack.ece.gatech.edu/" target="_blank">MagTrack</a> has been refined to offer a fully integrated, all-in-one experience so that a user can seamlessly switch between driving their wheelchair and controlling connected devices in their surroundings (e.g., smartphone, computer, automated door opener, smart TV). The system can be used anywhere since it is wearable, and its built-in wireless connectivity facilitates portability.The team at Georgia Tech is already working on a new version of&nbsp;<a href="https://magtrack.ece.gatech.edu/" target="_blank">MagTrack</a> that is not only more inconspicuous, but also includes detection of facial gestures that significantly augments its control capabilities. Thanks to a grant from the&nbsp;<a href="https://gra.org/" target="_blank">Georgia Research Alliance</a>, this new version of MagTrack will be tested in a focus group at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.shepherd.org/" target="_blank">Shepherd Center</a> and in simulated testing in a home-like environment. In the coming year, the team plans to make MagTrack available to early adopters for at-home validation testing to further improve the technology before pursuing commercialization.This successful study is only a start since, at its core, MagTrack is a new type of body motion tracking. The Georgia Tech team is working on various designs of MagTrack to be used as a wearable articulograph for motor speech disorders, as a hand and joint tracking system for physical rehabilitation, and even as a finger tracking for VR/AR applications. The MagTrack team will be partnering with the&nbsp;<a href="https://gcmiatl.com/" target="_blank">Global Center for Medical Innovation</a> to assist in regulatory strategy and project planning to transition the technology from the lab to the market.

A squint is an example of a facial gesture that MagTrack can detect and issue a discrete command to control a connected device.

Clinical work begins with MagTrack, a cutting-edge assistive technology that enables power wheelchair users to control their connected devices and drive their power wheelchairs using an alternative, multimodal controller.

MagTrack Technology Opens Doors for Independent Operation of Smartphones, Computers, and Other Devices for Wheelchair Users

The images made headlines around the world in late 2018. David Mzee, who had been left paralyzed by a partial spinal cord injury suffered in a sports accident, got up from his wheelchair and began to walk with the help of a walker. This was the first proof that Courtine and Bloch’s system – which uses electrical stimulation to reactivate spinal neurons – could work effectively in patients.<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4wUADfnCMdc?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" style="width: 767px; height: 437px;"></iframe>Fast forward three years, and a new milestone has just been reached. The research team led by both Courtine, a professor at EPFL, and Bloch, a professor and neurosurgeon at CHUV, has enhanced their system with more sophisticated implants controlled by artificial-intelligence software. These implants can stimulate the region of the spinal cord that activates the trunk and leg muscles. Thanks to this new technology, three patients with complete spinal cord injury were able to walk again outside the lab. “Our stimulation algorithms are still based on imitating nature,” says Courtine. “And our new, soft implanted leads are designed to be placed underneath the vertebrae, directly on the spinal cord. They can modulate the neurons regulating specific muscle groups. By controlling these implants, we can activate the spinal cord like the brain would do naturally to have the patient stand, walk, swim or ride a bike, for example.”<h2>Activating motor sequences at the push of a button</h2>On a cold, snowy day last December, Michel Roccati – an Italian man who became paralyzed after a motorcycle accident four years earlier – braved the icy wind to try out the system outdoors, in central Lausanne. He had recently undergone the surgical procedure in which Bloch placed the new, implanted lead on his spinal cord. Scientists from the Courtine and Bloch’s .NeuroRestore research center were with him, helping to prepare the demonstration. They attached two small remote controls to Michel’s walker and connected them wirelessly to a tablet that forwards the signals to a pacemaker in Michel’s abdomen. The pacemaker in turn relays the signals to the implanted spinal lead that stimulates specific neurons, causing Michel to move. When he was ready, Michel grasped the walker and set off. He pressed the button on the right side of the walker with the firm intention of taking a step forward with his left leg. His left foot rose like magic and fell to the ground a few centimeters ahead. He then did the same thing with the button on his left side, and his right foot moved forward. He was walking! “The first few steps were incredible – a dream come true!” he says. “I’ve been through some pretty intense training in the past few months, and I’ve set myself a series of goals. For instance, I can now go up and down stairs, and I hope to be able to walk one kilometer by this spring.”<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1644544468002-ezgif-5-e5d9eb5e93.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Michel Roccati stands up and walks in Lausanne. © EPFL / Alain Herzog 2021&nbsp;Two other patients have also successfully tested the new system, which is described in an <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01663-5" rel="noopener" target="_blank">article appearing today in Nature Medicine</a>. “Our breakthrough here is the longer, wider implanted leads with electrodes arranged in a way that corresponds exactly to the spinal nerve roots,” says Bloch. “That gives us precise control over the neurons regulating specific muscles.” Ultimately, it allows for greater selectivity and accuracy in controlling the motor sequences for a given activity.<h2>One day is all it takes</h2>Extensive training is obviously necessary for patients to get comfortable using the device. But the pace and scope of rehabilitation is amazing. “All three patients were able to stand, walk, pedal, swim and control their torso movements in just one day, after their implants were activated!” says Courtine. “That’s thanks to the specific stimulation programs we wrote for each type of activity. Patients can select the desired activity on the tablet, and the corresponding protocols are relayed to the pacemaker in the abdomen.”<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1644544498412-ezgif-5-2264b1550c.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Thanks to his implant, Michel Roccati can now stand to enjoy a drink. © EPFL / Alain Herzog 2021&nbsp;While the progress achievable in a single day is astonishing, the gains after several months are even more impressive. The three patients followed a training regimen based on the stimulation programs and were able to regain muscle mass, move around more independently, and take part in social activities like having a drink standing at a bar. What’s more, because the technology is miniaturized, the patients can perform their training exercises outdoors and not only inside a lab.“This study further demonstrates the benefits of our approach,” says Courtine. “We’re now working with <a href="http://onwd.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">ONWARD Medical</a>, which recently listed on Euronext, to turn our discoveries into genuine treatments that can improve the lives of thousands of people around the world.”<hr>ReferencesActivity-dependent spinal cord neuromodulation rapidly restores trunk and leg motor functions after complete paralysis, Nature Medicine, February 7 2022, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01663-5

 Michel Roccati stands up and walks in Lausanne. © EPFL / Alain Herzog 2021

A system developed by Grégoire Courtine and Jocelyne Bloch now enables patients with a complete spinal cord injury to stand, walk and even perform recreational activities like swimming, cycling and canoeing. 

New implant offers promise for the paralyzed

In this episode, we talk about how a new wearable device can combat fatigue and how monitoring BAC via sweat can be a new use case for wearables. As always, you can find these and other interesting &amp; impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/c866dfbc-964d-4828-b95e-edf2ff87e8da?dark=false" class="fr-draggable"></iframe>&nbsp;<hr>This podcast is sponsored by <a href="https://www2.mouser.com/" id="isPasted" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mouser Electronics</a>.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1644321153399-Mouser-sponsor-1-a.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><hr><h3 id="isPasted">EPISODE NOTES</h3>(3:00) - <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/article/energizing-the-brain-combating-worker-fatigue-using-wearable-neurotechnology/" target="_blank">Energizing The Brain🧠⚡️</a>(14:35) - <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/article/can-wearable-technology-predict-the-negative-consequences-of-drinking/" target="_blank">Wearables For Alcohol Consumption⌚️🍻</a>Episode 56 was brought to you by Mouser Electronics, Farbod &amp; Daniel’s favorite electronics distributor. Click <a href="https://www.mouser.com/applications/article-iot-wearable-devices/" target="_blank">here&nbsp;</a>to read the article giving an overview of how wearable electronics are transitioning away from being peripheral devices.<hr>About the podcast:Every day, some of the most innovative universities, companies, and individual technology developers share their knowledge on Wevolver. To ensure we can also provide this knowledge for the growing group of podcast listeners, we started a collaboration with two young engineers, Daniel Scott Mitchell &amp; Farbod Moghaddam who discuss the most interesting content in this podcast series.&nbsp;To learn more about this show, please visit the <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" target="_blank">shows page</a>. By following the page, you will get automatic updates by email when a new show is published.Be sure to give us a follow and review on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/the-next-byte/id1548255861?l=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple</a> podcasts, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6lPPsRtegnivsRUEsQ09R7?si=IPMiah7xT_apJtPjqvXMlA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, and most of your favorite podcast platforms!

Out of the counterbalance of anodal stimulation, sham stimulation and no stimulation, the team found that by exciting neuronal activity through anodal stimulation, task performance under fatigue improved, while it decreased under the other two sessions. | Image: Getty Images

In this episode, we talk about how a new wearable device can combat fatigue and how monitoring BAC via sweat can be a new use case for wearables. 

Podcast: Wearables For Combating Fatigue & Monitoring Alcohol Consumption

In this episode, we talk about a blind cane from Stanford University that borrows self-driving tech to increase the mobility of visually-impaired people by 20% as well as an effort from Texas A&amp;M to develop enhanced touchscreens which will enable users to feel textures on their smart devices. As always, you can find these and other interesting &amp; impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/56dfea3f-88e3-4e7c-b408-230412dd1710?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> <hr>This podcast is sponsored by <a href="https://www2.mouser.com/" id="isPasted" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mouser Electronics</a>.&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjM1MjI0MzQ1NzM3LU1vdXNlci1zcG9uc29yLTEtYS5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><hr><h3 id="isPasted">PISODE NOTES</h3>(1:03) - Self-navigating Smart Cane &nbsp;(15:16) - Enhanced Touchscreens &nbsp;Episode 41 was brought to you by Mouser Electronics, Farbod &amp; Daniel’s favorite electronics distributor. Click <a href="https://www.mouser.com/createthefuture/" target="_blank">here</a> to learn more about Mouser's Create the Future Design Contest.<hr>About the podcast:Every day, some of the most innovative universities, companies, and individual technology developers share their knowledge on Wevolver. To ensure we can also provide this knowledge for the growing group of podcast listeners, we started a collaboration with two young engineers, Daniel Scott Mitchell &amp; Farbod Moghaddam who discuss the most interesting content in this podcast series.&nbsp;To learn more about this show, please visit the <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" target="_blank">shows page</a>. By following the page, you will get automatic updates by email when a new show is published.Be sure to give us a follow and review on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/the-next-byte/id1548255861?l=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple</a> podcasts, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6lPPsRtegnivsRUEsQ09R7?si=IPMiah7xT_apJtPjqvXMlA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, and most of your favorite podcast platforms!Take a few seconds to leave us a review. It really helps!&nbsp;<a href="https://apple.co/2RIsbZ2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://apple.co/2RIsbZ2</a>if you do it and send us proof, we’ll give you a shoutout on the show.

In this episode, we talk about a blind cane from Stanford University that borrows self-driving tech to increase the mobility of visually-impaired people by 20% as well as an effort from Texas A&M to develop enhanced touchscreens which will enable users to feel textures on their smart devices.

Podcast: The Tesla of Blind Canes

Dougie Mann, one of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.3dhubs.com/education/student-grant/" target="_blank">3D Hubs Student Grant 2019</a> finalists, wanted to make it easier for people with disabilities to use smartphones. His end product is a 3D printed keyboard with just 5 buttons instead of 50. As the keyboard is built into a phone case, users can type without having to look, with only one hand, and without having to remove their phone from their pocket.<h2>Making the the smartphone smart - for everyone</h2>People who are visually impaired struggle to see the buttons on a flat touchscreen. Dougie's keyboard facilitates the use of an ordinary smart phone, without having to rely on the more stigmatizing solutions like voice-to-text devices.Amputees are another use case where typing on a full keyboard and mouse can be time consuming, whereas a single handed gestural keyboard can streamline the human-computer interaction.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1594221148905-ezgif-5-1b5d38df9980.gif" style="width: 788px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Designed with one-handed individuals in mind, such as amputees, stroke victims or hemiplegics, TypeCase simplifies a traditional keyboard down to a beautifully intuitive and effortless interaction. By integrating the board into a phone case, it reintroduces tactility back into touchscreen smartphones, offering the visually impaired a discrete alternative to the more stigmatizing voice-to-text methods.The keyboard works in &nbsp;a similar way to Braille, by showing the user how to press the right buttons when holding the phone. For the visually impaired, TypeCase uses haptic feedback that allows users not only to send messages, but to receive them as well. Reversing the interaction, you can ‘feel’ text using the same code with small vibrations in each of your fingers.This system could revolutionize communication for the blind. Simultaneously, it facilitates a whole new way for everyone to use a smartphone, and all without the need for audio.<img class="fr-fic fr-dib" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiAid2V2b2x2ZXItcHJvamVjdC1pbWFnZXMiLCAia2V5IjogImZyb2FsYS8xNTk0MDQ4MDcxMjIyLWFydGljbGUtYS0zZC1wcmludGVkLWtleWJvYXJkLWZvci10aGUtYmxpbmQtaW1hZ2UtMy5qcGciLCAiZWRpdHMiOiB7InJlc2l6ZSI6IHsid2lkdGgiOiA5NTAsICJmaXQiOiAiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 788px;">Dougie worked with a free and experimental process, starting with broader thematic questions about disability design. He studied the balance of form and function, the role of fashion and aesthetics in accessibility products, and tried a lot of different technologies before he arrived at the solution that became TypeCase.&nbsp;<img class="fr-fic fr-dib" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiAid2V2b2x2ZXItcHJvamVjdC1pbWFnZXMiLCAia2V5IjogImZyb2FsYS8xNTk0MDQ4MDkyNDM1LWFydGljbGUtYS0zZC1wcmludGVkLWtleWJvYXJkLWZvci10aGUtYmxpbmQtaW1hZ2UtNC5qcGciLCAiZWRpdHMiOiB7InJlc2l6ZSI6IHsid2lkdGgiOiA5NTAsICJmaXQiOiAiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 788px;">Starting with rapid prototyping of the electronics and designs, the first user tests were conducted on more functional prototypes in <a href="https://www.3dhubs.com/3d-printing/plastic/resin/" target="_blank">3D printed resin</a>. &nbsp;&nbsp;<img class="fr-fic fr-dib" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiAid2V2b2x2ZXItcHJvamVjdC1pbWFnZXMiLCAia2V5IjogImZyb2FsYS8xNTk0MDQ4MTQ4ODI0LWFydGljbGUtYS0zZC1wcmludGVkLWtleWJvYXJkLWZvci10aGUtYmxpbmQtaW1hZ2UtNi5qcGciLCAiZWRpdHMiOiB7InJlc2l6ZSI6IHsid2lkdGgiOiA5NTAsICJmaXQiOiAiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 788px;">Dougie spent a lot of time really pinning down the problems the intended users face to find a practical and real-world solution that would provide a genuine benefit. By re-framing the product as an inclusive design, he’ll be able to pitch the idea to a broader audience and also get the more traditional users excited in the concept and thereby be able to make it available to more users whose life TypeCase can have a real impact on.&nbsp;<img class="fr-fic fr-dib" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiAid2V2b2x2ZXItcHJvamVjdC1pbWFnZXMiLCAia2V5IjogImZyb2FsYS8xNTk0MDQ4MTY5NjQ5LWFydGljbGUtYS0zZC1wcmludGVkLWtleWJvYXJkLWZvci10aGUtYmxpbmQtaW1hZ2UtNy5qcGciLCAiZWRpdHMiOiB7InJlc2l6ZSI6IHsid2lkdGgiOiA5NTAsICJmaXQiOiAiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 788px;"><h2>Dougie Mann</h2>The creator and designer behind TypeCase,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dougiemann.co.uk/" target="_blank">Dougie Mann</a>, is a recent university graduate with master's degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Product Design from Imperial College London and The Royal College of Art. After graduating, Dougie worked at NASA in their Human Factors Division, and then with startups and research labs around the world working on a broad spectrum of Design and Engineering projects. At the moment, Dougie is working as a Biomedical Design. Dougie comments:"The product still needs a lot of work and development on the hardware and design. Not to mention, there is a whole untouched software side to the project which could really make a huge difference to the usability and functionality. Ultimately, I would love to get it to the point where it makes someone's life easier - then I'll be happy."

Dougie Mann wanted to make it easier for people with disabilities to use smartphones. His end product is a 3D printed keyboard with just 5 buttons instead of 50.

A 3D printed keyboard for the blind

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a wearable, wireless sensor that can monitor a person&rsquo;s skin hydration for use in applications that need to detect dehydration before it poses a health problem. The device is lightweight, flexible and stretchable and has already been incorporated into prototype devices that can be worn on the wrist or as a chest patch.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1578350871924-Zhu-hydration-sensors-SIDEBAR-400.jpg">The hydration sensors consist of two electrodes made of an elastic polymer composite that contains conductive silver nanowires.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s difficult to measure a person&rsquo;s hydration quantitatively, which is relevant for everyone from military personnel to athletes to firefighters, who are at risk of health problems related to heat stress when training or in the field,&rdquo; says John Muth, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC&nbsp;State and co-corresponding author of a paper describing the work.&ldquo;We have developed technology that allows us to track an individual&rsquo;s skin hydration in real time,&rdquo; says Yong Zhu, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC&nbsp;State and co-corresponding author of the paper. &ldquo;Our sensor could be used to protect the health of people working in hot conditions, improve athletic performance and safety, and to track hydration in older adults or in medical patients suffering from various conditions. It can even be used to tell how effective skin moisturizers are for cosmetics.&rdquo;The sensor consists of two electrodes made of an elastic polymer composite that contains conductive silver nanowires. These electrodes monitor the electrical properties of the skin. Because the skin&rsquo;s electric properties change in a predictable way based on an individual&rsquo;s hydration, the readings from the electrodes can tell how hydrated the skin is.In lab testing using custom-made artificial skins with a broad range of hydration levels, the researchers found that the performance of the wearable sensor was not affected by ambient humidity. And the wearable sensors were just as accurate as a large, expensive, commercially available hydration monitor that operates on similar principles, but utilizes rigid wand-like probes.The researchers also incorporated the sensors into two different wearable systems: a wristwatch and an adhesive patch that can be worn on the chest. Both the watch and the patch wirelessly transmit sensor data to a program that can run on a laptop, tablet or smartphone. This means the data can be monitored by the user or by a designated third party &ndash; such as a doctor in a hospital setting, or an officer in a military setting.What&rsquo;s more, the sensor is relatively inexpensive.&ldquo;The commercially available monitor we tested our system against costs more than $8,000,&rdquo; says Shanshan Yao, a Ph.D. student at NC&nbsp;State and lead author of the paper. &ldquo;Our sensor costs about one dollar, and the overall manufacturing cost of the wearable systems we developed would be no more than a common wearable device, such as a Fitbit.&rdquo;The paper, &ldquo;<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adhm.201601159/abstract" target="_blank">A Wearable Hydration Monitor with Conformal Nanowire Electrodes</a>,&rdquo; is published in the journal&nbsp;Advanced Healthcare Materials. The paper was co-authored by Amanda Myers and Abhishek Malhotra, Ph.D. students at NC State; Feiyan Lin, a former graduate student at NC State; and Alper Bozkurt, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State.

The new sensor, which tracks an individual’s skin hydration in real time, can be incorporated into a wearable patch. Photo credit: Shanshan Yao.

Researchers have developed a wearable, wireless sensor that can monitor a person’s skin hydration for use in applications that need to detect dehydration before it poses a health problem.

Researchers Develop Wearable, Low-Cost Sensor to Measure Skin Hydration

The human heart beats approximately 35 million times every year, pumping blood via four different heart valves. Unfortunately, &nbsp;in more four million people each year, these delicate tissues malfunction due to birth defects, age-related deteriorations, and infections causing cardiac valve disease.Today, clinicians use either artificial prostheses or fixed animal and cadaver-sourced tissues to replace defective valves. While these prostheses can restore the function of the heart for a while, they are associated with adverse comorbidity and wear down and need to be replaced during invasive and expensive surgeries. Moreover, in children, implanted heart valve prostheses need to be replaced even more often as they cannot grow with the child.A team lead by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/kkparker" target="_blank">Kevin Kit Parker</a>, Tarr Family Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics at the<a href="http://www.seas.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences&nbsp;</a>(SEAS), recently developed a nanofiber fabrication technique to rapidly manufacture heart valves with regenerative and growth potential.Parker is also a Core Faculty member of&nbsp;<a href="http://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.</a>In a paper published in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142961217302685" target="_blank">Biomaterials</a>, first author Andrew Capulli and colleagues fabricated a valve-shaped nanofiber network that mimics the mechanical and chemical properties of the native valve extracellular matrix (ECM). The team used the Parker lab&rsquo;s proprietary rotary jet spinning technology &ndash; in which a rotating nozzle extrudes an ECM solution into nanofibers that wrap themselves around heart valve-shaped mandrels.&ldquo;Our setup is like a very fast cotton candy machine that can spin a range of synthetic and natural occurring materials,&rdquo; said Parker. &ldquo;In this study, we used a combination of synthetic polymers and ECM proteins to fabricate biocompatible JetValves that are hemodynamically competent upon implantation and support cell migration and re-population&nbsp;in vitro. Importantly, we can make human-sized JetValves in minutes &ndash; much faster than possible for other regenerative prostheses.&rdquo;To further develop and test the clinical potential of JetValves, Parker&rsquo;s team partnered with the translational team of Simon P. Hoerstrup, at the University of Zurich. As a leader in regenerative heart prostheses, Hoerstrup and his team in Zurich previously developed regenerative, tissue-engineered heart valves to replace mechanical and fixed-tissue heart valves. In Hoerstrup&rsquo;s approach, human cells directly deposit a regenerative layer of complex ECM on biodegradable scaffolds shaped as heart valves and vessels. The living cells are then eliminated from the scaffolds resulting in an &ldquo;off-the-shelf&rdquo; human matrix-based prostheses ready for implantation.In the paper, the cross-disciplinary team successfully implanted JetValves in sheep using a minimally invasive technique and demonstrated that the valves functioned properly in the circulation and regenerated new tissue.&ldquo;In our previous studies, the cell-derived ECM-coated scaffolds could recruit cells from the receiving animal&rsquo;s heart and support cell proliferation, matrix remodeling, tissue regeneration, and even animal growth. While these valves are safe and effective, their manufacturing remains complex and expensive as human cells must be cultured for a long time under heavily regulated conditions. The JetValve&rsquo;s much faster manufacturing process can be a game-changer in this respect. If we can replicate these results in humans, this technology could have invaluable benefits in minimizing the number of pediatric re-operations,&rdquo; said Hoerstrup.

In rotary jet spinning technology, a rotating nozzle extrudes a solution of extracellular matrix (ECM) into nanofibers that wrap themselves around heart valve-shaped mandrels. By using a series of mandrels with different sizes, the manufacturing process becomes fully scalable and is able to provide JetValves for all age groups and heart sizes. (Photo courtesy of Wyss Institute at Harvard University)

Harvard and the University of Zurich partner to create a next-generation heart valve that accurately functions upon implantation and regenerates into long-lasting heart-like tissue

Engineering heart valves for the many

What if running the 26.2 miles of a marathon only felt like running 24.9 miles, or if you could improve your average running pace from 9:14 minutes/mile to 8:49 minutes/mile without weeks of training? Researchers at the<a href="http://seas.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences&nbsp;</a>(SEAS) and the&nbsp;<a href="http://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University</a> have demonstrated that a tethered soft exosuit can reduce the metabolic cost of running on a treadmill by 5.4 percent compared to not wearing the exosuit, bringing those dreams of high performance closer to reality.&quot;Homo sapiens has evolved to become very good at distance running, but our results show that further improvements to this already extremely efficient system are possible,&rdquo; said author Philippe Malcolm, former postdoctoral research fellow at SEAS and the Wyss Institute, and now Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, where he continues to collaborate on this work.The study appears today in&nbsp;<a href="http://robotics.sciencemag.org/content/2/6/eaan6708" target="_blank">Science Robotics</a>.Running is a naturally more costly form of movement than walking, so any attempt to reduce its strain on the body must impose a minimal additional burden. The soft exosuit technology developed in the lab of <a href="https://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/walsh" target="_blank">Conor Walsh</a>, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SEAS and Wyss Core Faculty member, represents an ideal platform for assisted running, as its textile-based design is lightweight and moves with the body.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1577273403478-Exosuit-Running.jpg" style="width: 1114px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">A team of scientists in Walsh&rsquo;s lab led by postdoctoral fellow Giuk Lee performed the study with an exosuit that incorporated flexible wires connecting apparel anchored to the back of the thigh and waist belt to an external actuation unit. As subjects ran on a treadmill wearing the exosuit, the actuation unit pulled on the wires, which acted as a second pair of hip extensor muscles applying force to the legs with each stride. The metabolic cost was measured by analyzing the subjects&rsquo; oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production while running.The team tested two different &ldquo;assistance profiles,&rdquo; or patterns of wire-pulling. One was based on human biology that applied force starting at the point of maximum hip extension observed in normal running. The other was based on a simulation of exoskeleton-assisted running from<a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0163417#abstract0" target="_blank">&nbsp;a group at Stanford University</a>, which applied force slightly later in the running stride. The Stanford study suggested that the optimal point to provide assistive force might not be the same as the biological norm. Confirming this suspicion, Lee and colleagues found that the simulation-based profile outperformed the biology-based profile in reducing metabolic cost by about a factor of two.As the authors note in the paper, &ldquo;Our finding supports a paradigm shift toward the concept that mimicking our current understanding of biology is not necessarily always optimal.&rdquo;To clarify why applying force later in running stride improved metabolic expenditure so dramatically, the team analyzed what was happening to the subjects&rsquo; other joints when their hip joints were being assisted by the actuating wires. They found that the simulation-based profile also affected knee extension and the forces between the foot and the ground, while the biology-based profile did not.&ldquo;The biological profile only takes into account the amount of torque in the hip joint, but the human body is not a series of independently acting parts - it&rsquo;s full of muscles that act on multiple joints to coordinate movement,&rdquo; said Lee. &ldquo;Applying force to the hip affects the whole body system, and we need to consider that in order to give the best assistance.&rdquo;While the study&rsquo;s results suggest that the increased biomechanical involvement of the simulation-based assistance profile is responsible for the reduction in metabolic cost, further biomechanical analyses are needed to confirm its findings.The team hopes to continue this research to reduce the metabolic cost of running even more.&ldquo;We only tested two actuation profiles in this study, so it will be interesting to see how much more the cost of running can be reduced with further optimization of the system,&rdquo; said Malcolm.&ldquo;Our goal is to develop a portable system with a high power-to-weight ratio so that the benefit of using the suit greatly offsets the cost of wearing it. We believe this technology could augment the performance of recreational athletes and/or help with recovery after injury,&rdquo; said Lee.The days of a battery-powered exosuit for high-performance runners are still beyond the horizon, as the actuator unit (including motors, electronics, and power supply) in this study was off-board, but the authors say technology is moving toward making an untethered assistive exosuit possible in the near future.&ldquo;This study is a great example of how our team can quickly leverage its experience and expertise in wearable technology and biomechanics to demonstrate how human performance can be improved in new application areas,&rdquo; said Walsh.

Researchers have demonstrated a tethered soft exosuit that can reduce the metabolic cost of running on a treadmill by 5.4 percent compared to not wearing the exosuit (Image courtesy of The Wyss Institute)

New robotic exosuit could push the limits of human performance and lead to new wearable technologies for athletes and consumers

Tethered soft exosuit reduces the metabolic cost of running

<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1570181911758-inputtest2.jpeg" style="width: 461px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Study participants tapped Morse Code into Google Glass after four hours&nbsp;It&rsquo;s not exactly beating something into someone&rsquo;s head. More like tapping it into the side.Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a system that teaches people Morse code within four hours using a series of vibrations felt near the ear. Participants wearing Google Glass learned it without paying attention to the signals &mdash;they played games while feeling the taps and hearing the corresponding letters. After those few hours, they were 94 percent accurate keying a sentence that included every letter of the alphabet and 98 percent accurate writing codes for every letter.This is the latest chapter of passive haptic learning (PHL) studies at Georgia Tech. The same method &mdash; using vibrations while participants aren&rsquo;t paying attention &mdash;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.news.gatech.edu/2014/06/23/wearable-computing-gloves-can-teach-braille-even-if-you%E2%80%99re-not-paying-attention" target="_blank">has taught people braille</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.news.gatech.edu/2008/11/07/reinventing-way-people-learn-play-piano" target="_blank">how to play the piano</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.news.gatech.edu/hg/item/140221" target="_blank">improved hand sensation for those with partial spinal cord injury.</a>The PHL projects are all led by Georgia Tech Professor Thad Starner and his Ph.D. student Caitlyn Seim. The team decided to use Glass for this study because it has both a built-in speaker and tapper (Glass&rsquo;s bone-conduction transducer).In the study, participants played a game while feeling vibration taps between their temple and ear. The taps represented the dots and dashes of Morse code and passively &ldquo;taught&rdquo; users through their tactile senses &mdash; even while they were distracted by the game.&nbsp;The taps were created when researchers sent a very low-frequency signal to Glass&rsquo;s speaker system. At less than 15 Hz, the signal was below hearing range but, because it was played very slowly, the sound was felt as a vibration.&nbsp;Half of the participants in the study felt the vibration taps and heads a voice prompt for each corresponding letter. The other half &mdash; the control group &mdash; felt no taps to help them learn.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1570181952817-tap2.jpeg" style="width: 630px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The findings demonstrate silent, eyes-free text entry on a mobile device without a keyboard (participants touched on Glass&#39;s touchpad to enter Morse code during quizzes). &nbsp;Many mobile or wearable devices cannot accommodate a full keyboard, so it is a challenge to enable text entry on these devices. This research demonstrates a successful system and a rapid, low-effort way to learn it. Participants were tested throughout the study on their knowledge of Morse code and their ability to type it. &nbsp;After less than four hours of feeling every letter, everyone was challenged to type the alphabet in Morse code in a final test.The control group was accurate only half the time. &nbsp;Those who felt the passive cues were nearly perfect.The research was recently presented in Germany at the 20th International Symposium on Wearable Computers.&ldquo;Does this new study mean that people will rush out to learn Morse code? Probably not,&rdquo; said Starner. &ldquo;It shows that PHL lowers the barrier to learn text-entry methods &mdash; something we need for smartwatches and any text-entry that doesn&rsquo;t require you to look at your device or keyboard.&rdquo;Previous research on PHL used custom hardware to provide the tactile stimuli, but here researchers use an existing wearable device.&nbsp;&ldquo;This research also shows that other common devices with an actuator could be used for passive haptic learning,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Your smartwatch, Bluetooth headset, fitness tracker or phone.&rdquo;&ldquo;In our Braille and piano PHL studies, people felt vibrations on their fingers, then used their fingers for the task,&rdquo; said Seim. &ldquo;This study was different and surprising. People were tapped on their heads, but the skill they learned was using their finger.&rdquo;Seim&rsquo;s next study will go a step further, investigating whether PHL can teach people how to type on the trusted QWERTY keyboard. That would mean several letters assigned to the same finger, rather than using only one finger like Morse code.

New study demonstrates silent, eyes-free text entry

Learning Morse Code without Trying

<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1569983765878-HeartSleeveInVirtoFinal_0.gif" style="width: 633px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">In vitro demonstration of the pumping of the soft robotic sleeve (Video courtesy of Ellen Roche/Harvard University)&nbsp;Harvard University and Boston Children&rsquo;s Hospital researchers have developed a customizable soft robot that fits around a heart and helps it beat, potentially opening new treatment options for people suffering from heart failure.The soft robotic sleeve twists and compresses in synch with a beating heart, augmenting cardiovascular functions weakened by heart failure. Unlike currently available devices that assist heart function, Harvard&rsquo;s soft robotic sleeve does not directly contact blood. This reduces the risk of clotting and eliminates the need for a patient to take potentially dangerous blood thinner medications. The device may one day be able to bridge a patient to transplant or to aid in cardiac rehabilitation and recovery.&ldquo;This research demonstrates that the growing field of soft robotics can be applied to clinical needs and potentially reduce the burden of heart disease and improve the quality of life for patients,&rdquo; said Ellen T. Roche, the paper&rsquo;s first author and former PhD student at the&nbsp;<a href="http://seas.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences</a> (SEAS) and&nbsp;<a href="http://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">The Wyss Institute&nbsp;</a><a href="http://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">of</a><a href="http://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University</a>. &nbsp;Roche is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the National University of Ireland Galway.The research, published in&nbsp;<a href="http://stm.sciencemag.org/" target="_blank">Science Translational Medicine</a>, was a collaboration between SEAS, the Wyss Institute and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.childrenshospital.org/" target="_blank">Boston Children&rsquo;s Hospital</a>.&ldquo;This work represents an exciting proof of concept result for this soft robot, demonstrating that it can safely interact with soft tissue and lead to improvements in cardiac function. We envision many other future applications where such devices can delivery&nbsp;<a href="https://wyss.harvard.edu/disruptive-mechanotherapeutics-from-drugs-to-wearables-2/" target="_blank">mechanotherapy</a> both inside and outside of the body,&rdquo; said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/walsh" target="_blank">Conor Walsh</a>, senior author of the paper and the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SEAS and Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute.Heart failure affects 41 million people worldwide. Today, some of the options to treat it are mechanical pumps called&nbsp;<a name="OLE_LINK2" id="OLE_LINK2" target="_blank"></a><a id="OLE_LINK1" name="OLE_LINK1" target="_blank">ventricular assist devices&nbsp;</a>(VADs), which pump blood from the ventricles into the aorta, and heart transplant. While VADs are continuously improving, patients are still at high risk for blood clots and stroke.To create an entirely new device that doesn&rsquo;t come into contact with blood, Harvard researchers took inspiration from the heart itself. The thin silicone sleeve uses soft pneumatic actuators placed around the heart to mimic the outer muscle layers of the mammalian heart. &nbsp;The actuators twist and compress the sleeve in a similar motion to the beating heart.The device is tethered to an external pump, which uses air to power the soft actuators.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1569983812883-HeartSleeveFinalGif1.gif" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">In vivo demonstration of cardiac assist in a porcine model of acute heart failure (Video courtesy of Ellen Rouche/Harvard SEAS)The sleeve can be customized for each patient, said Roche. If a patient has more weakness on the left side of the heart, for example, the actuators can be tuned to give more assistance on that side. The pressure of the actuators can also increase or decrease over time, as the patient&rsquo;s condition evolves.The sleeve is attached to the heart using a combination of a suction device, sutures and a gel interface to help with friction between the device and the heart.The SEAS and Wyss engineers worked with surgeons at Boston Children&rsquo;s Hospital to develop the device and determine the best ways to implant the device and test it on animal models.&ldquo;The cardiac field had turned away from idea of developing heart compression instead of blood-pumping VADs due to technological limitations, but now with advancements in soft robotics it&rsquo;s time to turn back,&rdquo; said Frank Pigula, a cardiothoracic surgeon and co-corresponding author on the study, who was formerly clinical director of pediatric cardiac surgery at Boston Children&rsquo;s Hospital and is now a faculty member at University of Louisville and division chief of pediatric cardiac surgery at Norton Children&rsquo;s Hospital. &ldquo;Most people with heart failure do still have some function left; one day the robotic sleeve may help their heart work well enough that their quality of life can be restored.&quot;More research needs to be done before the sleeve can be implanted in humans but the research is an important first step towards an implantable soft robot that can augment organ function.Harvard&rsquo;s<a href="http://otd.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Office of Technology Development&nbsp;</a>has filed a patent application and is actively pursuing commercialization opportunities.&ldquo;This research is really significant at the moment because more and more people are surviving heart attacks and ending up with heart failure,&rdquo; said Roche. &ldquo;Soft robotic devices are ideally suited to interact with soft tissue and give assistance that can help with augmentation of function, and potentially even healing and recovery.&rdquo;

Harvard researchers have developed a customizable soft robot that fits around a heart and helps it beat, potentially opening new treatment options for people suffering from heart failure. The device is tethered to an external pump, which uses air to power the soft actuators

human augmentation

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