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(Photo from jaipurfoot.org)
The Jaipur Limb was invented in the 1960s by an orthopedic surgeon and an artisan who worked at Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur, India. They saw the desperate need of poor people who were suffering from loco-motor disabilities and devised this limb that would help them them live more independent and productive lives. The prosthetic resembles a real limb, requires very little training to fabricate and can be made for a total cost of $100 -$200US as opposed to tens of thousands of dollars.
A Jaipur leg is designed for the specific needs of its most frequent users. The rural poor often go barefoot. They walk over rocky and uneven terrain. They may need to stand or walk through mud or standing water. They may not own a chair, so they spend a lot of time sitting cross-legged on the floor. And they likely use a squat toilet. None of these activities are possible with the standard prostheses in use in wealthy countries.
Link – via The Daily Beast
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Every year, prosthetic options for amputees get better. One recent improvement is a flexible foot, currently in development at the University of Michigan. It recycles the energy of motion, making it less tiring for users to walk longer distances:
For amputees, what they experience when they’re trying to walk normally is what I would experience if I were carrying an extra 30 pounds,” said Art Kuo, professor in the Univ. of Michigan departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.
Compared with conventional prosthetic feet, the new prototype device significantly cuts the energy spent per step.[...]
Based on metabolic rate measurements, the test subjects spent 14 percent more energy walking in energy-recycling artificial foot than they did walking naturally. That’s a significant decrease from the 23 percent more energy they used in the conventional prosthetic foot, Kuo says.
“We know there’s an energy penalty in using an artificial foot,” Kuo said. “We’re almost cutting that penalty in half.”
Link via Make (which has information about other advanced prosthetic feet) | Image: Steve Collins, University of Michigan
Computer security expert Tadayoshi Kohno says that biotechnology that has a neural interface, such as advanced prosthetic limbs, may make the brain accessible to hackers in the future:
In some cases, patients might even want to hack into their own neural device. Unlike devices to control prosthetic limbs, which still use wires, many deep brain stimulators already rely on wireless signals. Hacking into these devices could enable patients to “self-prescribe” elevated moods or pain relief by increasing the activity of the brain’s reward centers.
Despite the risks, Kohno said, most new devices aren’t created with security in mind. Neural engineers carefully consider the safety and reliability of new equipment, and neuroethicists focus on whether a new device fits ethical guidelines. But until now, few groups have considered how neural devices might be hijacked to perform unintended actions. This is the first time an academic paper has addressed the topic of “neurosecurity,” a term the group coined to describe their field.
