I like it when science fiction tech waltzes its way into the “really real” — and that’s what eLegs is doing. Well, it may not be waltzing just yet, but it’s certainly going a long way to helping paraplegics start walking!
eLegs is based on the HULC exoskeleton built for the military by Berkeley Bionics and is heading into medical trials. At the moment, it is not complete upright mobile freedom, but it is a huge step forward and actually does help paraplegics to get out of their chairs and walk. The creators say that they are already working on a “home” version that will allow users to walk unassisted (outside of the robotic exoskeleton, of course).
This is a fantastic step forward for rehabilitation efforts and generally helping people — and while the irony of eLegs developing from a military contract doesn’t escape me, it is equally fantastic that something so positive came from the technology. The grin on the woman in the video below says more than enough to me…
Check out Make Magazine’s blog for more stories like this, and the one I posted on Wednesday. It’s worth your time.
Berkeley Bionics introduces eLEGS exoskeleton [Make Magazine]
You may remember that the first generation PS3 allowed your system to be partitioned and function as a (limited) Linux computer. In fact, it was a major selling point of the PS3. However, if you haven’t heard, in version 3.21 of the Playstation 3 firmware, released on April 1st (and thought a poor joke by many), Sony has removed the capability to install or even access the OtherOS functionality of the original PS3 system. This will cause the gigabytes of data you have locked into your Linux installation to be inaccessible.
I suppose that the recommended way to drive traffic to a blog would be to write posts that appeal to the greatest number of your readers. Every now and then, though, I find a solution to a problem that drives me so crazy that I will want to write about it, even if it only helps a few people. If it saves them the aggravation that it caused me, it is worth it. To highlight that a post won’t appeal to everyone, I’ll call these posts "niche tips." The first niche tip for this blog covers a problem I ran into integrating