The technology's already here, we just need a venture capital firm and a determined entrepreneur to make it happen. A foursome of designers -- Seon-Keun Park, Byung-Min Woo, Sun-Hye Woo and Jin-Sun Park -- have banded together to create the above pictured concept, an e-reader for those with limited or no vision. Their Braille E-Book concept theoretically relies on electroactive polymers in order to change the surface's shape as pages are turned, and while we fully expect the battery life to suffer due to all the necessary commotion, it's definitely a start that needs to happen.

Oh MIT, do the wonders that come from your halls ever cease? Yet another remarkable development is emerging from the fabled institution, and this time it's an autonomous wheelchair that can remember important places in a given building (read: the hospital ward, your house, the local arcade, etc.) and then take you there on command. In other words, the voice recognizing chair could understand phrases of direction, such as "head to the kitchen," and it would take on the burden of navigating the halls while letting the rider chill. The researchers are implementing a system that can learn and adapt to the individual user, and in the future, they'd like to add in a collision-avoidance system and mechanical arms to help patients lift and move objects. Say, can regular joes / janes buy these? We're totally feeling this over the Segway.

[Via medGadget]

It turns out that the tongue isn't tied to the spinal cord (had we paid better attention in Bio101, we'd have known that), which goes a long way towards keeping it unimpared in the event of spinal cord injury. A team at Georgia Tech is developing a tongue-based apparatus for disabled people that, which not as elegantly packaged as the GRAViTONUS device we've seen earlier, fashions a pointing device from a small tongue-mounted magnet and sensors near the cheeks. The team has promised interactivity way beyond what can be done with "sip and puff" input methods; think "mouth replaces mouse" and you've got the idea. Hopefully Mavis Beacon tongue-typing and the incorporation of haptic feedback won't be far behind.

Here's your heartwarming story for the day. Microsoft has teamed up with Companions in Courage in order to bring "hundreds" of Xbox 360 kiosks to children's hospitals across the nation, and the gaming stations have already been installed at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center of Seattle and the Children's Hospital of Orange County, California. The customized units are "hospital-friendly" and come pre-loaded with a variety of E and E10+ rated games, Y-rated television programs, G-rated movies and the Xbox Live headset / Vision camera in order for gamers to play online. Speaking of, each kiosk is wired to a private Live network which "allows hospitalized children across the country to play games and chat" with each other. There's no word on where the stations are slated to arrive outside of the three venues already mentioned, but those interested in broadening the reach of the endeavor can feel free to donate to the cause.

[Via OhGizmo]

If you're suddenly overcome with an eerie feeling of déjà vu, fret not, as this idea has certainly been brainstormed before. As scientists aim to make prosthetic limbs more user-friendly, a certain physiatrist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and professor at Northwestern University has developed a technique that enables artificial arms to react directly to the brain's thoughts. The process, dubbed targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR), works by rewiring residual nerves that once carried information to the now-lost appendage to the chest; when the person thinks to move their arm, the chest muscle contracts, and with the help of an electromyogram (EMG), the signal is "directed to a microprocessor in the artificial arm which decodes the data and tells the arm what to do." Currently, "only" four movements are possible after the procedure, but studies are already in full swing to determine if TMR could be used to bless future patients with an even fuller of range of motion.

[Image courtesy of ScienceDaily]

It's been quite a while since we've heard anything new on the C-Leg, but German firm Otto Bock has now unveiled a sleeker, stronger, and more military-approved version for those in need of a new leg. The microprocessor-controlled knee joint is "the standard prosthesis issued to US fighters who have lost a leg above the knee," offers up a number of "modes" to best suit your current activity, and includes a wireless remote for switching between those modes. The intelligent system within takes data samples of your gait 50 times per second in order to best adapt to your needs, and the internal hydraulics promise "optimal response" no matter how strenuous or demanding the chore. Of course, buying a leg that seemingly puts these natural ones to shame won't run you cheap, as the newest C-Leg will reportedly cost somewhere in the $30,000 to $40,000 range to have it delivered and fitted.

[Via Wired]
Read - C-Leg used on American soldiers
Read - Product Page

We've seen a smorgasbord of off the wall creations designed to help those with limited motor skills interact with the average PC, but a group of Kent State researchers have returned to square one and devised a more useful method of actually getting the computer turned on in the first place. The team, which including a graduate assistant who has quadriplegia, found the solution by "adding a jack to the back interior wall of the tower and paralleling it to the on / off circuit of the motherboard." Subsequently, any number of sip / puff switches (pictured device is for reference) could be attached to the jack in order to power the machine on without the use of one's hands or feet. Sadly, there was no mention of bringing such a useful creation to market, but with the right handyman, we're sure this project wouldn't be too hard to replicate on your own.

[Via Physorg]

Early last year, gurus at the University of Michigan were devising a newfangled type of cochlear implant, but now it looks like the Wolverines are more interested in a fresh auditory nerve implant that is being dubbed "a superior alternative" to the (now) old fashioned option. The uber-thin electrode array would purportedly "transmit a wide range of sounds to the brain," and could give profoundly and severely deaf people the ability to "to hear low-pitched sounds common in speech, converse in a noisy room, identify high and low voices, and appreciate music." Researchers on the project are convinced that this technology trumps cochlear implants in every way, and while preliminary patents have already been filed, it'll still be nearly a decade at best before these things can invade human ears en masse.

[Via Physorg]

Nah, it's not quite a throwback to the 80s, but Zane Van Dusen has co-developed "a computer interface that tracks the movement of a user's head to allow them to produce electronic sounds and compose music on a virtual keyboard in both solo and ensemble settings." The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute senior worked with a team of musicians and programming gurus to create a device that would enable those with extremely limited mobility to still express their creativity through music, and aside the from therapeutic benefits, it also holds promise for expanding into a venue for verbal communication. Essentially, the user can line him or herself up with a camera, and as the head bobs, the software determines the new X and Y coordinates and "uses the information to play a note or trigger a sound." While it might not be quite as totally radical as the Guitar Zeros, it sure sounds more exciting than the Bacterial Orchestra.

[Thanks, Amber]

Racing RC cars was definitely one of our favorite things to do when we were mere gadget-obsessed tykes (at least until we turned 16), and soon disabled kids will be able to join in on the fun, thanks to English outfit Dream Technology. The two-person pit crew's Dream-Racer uses a baseball cap with four integrated motion sensors that controls a modified Nikko RC car. Instead of the conventional pistol-trigger controller, you simply tilt your head in the appropriate direction to operate the vehicle. The company developed the tech in response to a request from a charity group that later found the £159 ($315) toy helped disabled children improve their cognitive skills and play independently (gee, ya think?). That's terrific, but we don't see any reason to limit sales to just disabled kids when this thing is ready to ship later this summer -- what kid wouldn't want to pretend they have a mind-link with their car?

[Via MedLaunches]

Although we've seen gait monitors and even prosthetic feet that assist individuals in regaining a more natural stride, scientists at Technion Institute of Technology in Israel have resorted to a head-mounted display for its rendition. This virtual reality device combines "auditory and visual feedback to improve walking speed and stride length in patients suffering from Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson's disease," and provides the wearer with a "tiled-floor image" that apparently assists them in navigating nearly any terrain. The device is meant to take the place of normal muscle feedback mechanisms, and to provide said feedback to these disabled individuals so they can make adjustments and improve the efficiency of their walk. The HMD has already made its way to several medical centers and has purportedly yielded positive results, but there was no word on when this device would be commercially available.

[Via MedGadget]

After a solid four-mile run on the Doggy Treadmill, it's not too tough to understand why Fido is famished, but for folks who are disabled in ways that make bending down or moving around in general difficult, getting the pet food from the pantry to the bowl has been a serious chore. Thanks to a retired engineer (who was stricken by cerebral palsy) that figured he better solve his own problem rather than wait for someone else, the DinnerUp apparatus was concocted, and now it's on the brink of commercialization. The device mounts onto a kitchen counter or door and relies on a hand crank / clutching system in order to lift the attached bowls to a level that's easy to reach, after which it's lowered back down to the anxious pets below. Currently, Ray Dinham is assembling the units himself and offloading them to "satisfied customers" for £70 ($140) apiece, but it shouldn't be long before the manufacturing is "outsourced to a UK-based firm" and these gain some serious worldwide traction.

[Via BBC]

In an attempt to create a more fashionable alternative to the wheelchair devices that handicapped children currently rely on to get around, a group of engineers at the Bath Institute for Medical Engineering, in consultation with parents and occupational therapists, have concocted the car-like Whizzybug. The all-terrain vehicle can reportedly handle asphalt and green pastures without issue, and sports a blistering top speed of two miles-per-hour. Additionally, it can be controlled by the caregiver or the youngster, weighs in at just under 70-pounds, has a "fully adjustable seating system with memory foam cushions and a programmable joystick," and to top things off, this bad boy even touts a trailer hitch for towing those weak Power Wheels rigs out of the rough. The devices are slated to be sold by the developing charity, Whizz-Kidz, "at cost," which means that interested parents will be looking at anywhere between £1,700 ($3,406) and £2,000 ($4,007) depending on options.

[Via MedLaunches]

The students on the Palo Alto High School InvenTeam arrived at the Stanford Cool Products Expo this year with a new system designed to allow quadriplegics to operate all kinds of gadgets and appliances. The user shakes his head to activate a glasses-mounted laser, which he can then point at sensors embedded in an array of custom triggers placed around the home. So far the team's nailed the basic on/off circuit needed for lights, fans, and a pet food dispenser (which is currently shelling out M&M's to Expo attendees), but the real noise is their plan to extend the system by building a small robot that will perform various tasks. According to the school, team captain Guy Davidson was only kidding a little when he said the team hoped "to have [the user] vacuuming in a few weeks." While this isn't the first time we've seen lasers used to assist the disabled, you gotta wonder what's going to happen to their altruisitic spirit when these kids realize they can also just headmount one of those crazy high-powered laser pointers.

Read - CNET Cool Products Expo video (second item)
Read - Palo Alto High School press release (6MB PDF)