Bionic Leg for the Commercial Market

Jay writes "I thought you may be interested in this crazy-cool fully powered bionic knee called the Power Knee. It's made by Victhom, a French-Canadian company and will be marketed by Ossur, an Icelandic prosthetics company and one of the biggest prosthetics companies in the world. You may have seen them in the news lately with their Rheo Knee or rheomagnetic computer controlled knee. This new Power Knee takes it to the next level with full active power. Supposedly it will allow people to walk up stairs and the like. Here's the link to Ossur's Power Knee website with photos and video, and to Victhom's website. Cool video, amazing device."

Comments

Re:i don't really get it

[multiplexo]

Above knee (trans femoral) amputees have a harder time of walking with most prosthetic knee joints because they have to learn to modulate the swing of their leg using the muscles in their thigh, glutes and lower back. Eventually many of them learn to do this well enough so that you can't tell that they are wearing a prostheses. However this is very fatiguing. The Ossur C-leg was a major advance for AK amputees because the microprocessors could modulate the swing of the lower portion of the leg, making it swing farther for a faster gait and not so far for a slower gait.

However for climbing up and down stairs AK amputees have a harder time, even with a smart knee such as that in the C-leg because they don't have the muscles to modulate their gait and the muscles through the knee that help you go up and down slopes and stairs. Going up and down stairs with a BK amputation (trans-tibial) is also difficult due to the loss of the muscles and joints in the foot but is manageable, for an AK amputee all of the work in going up and down stairs has to be done by the remaining leg, which gets tiring very quickly.

I've met a lot of AK amputees (I'm a BK amputee) and this leg will be a huge advance for them, now we just need to get their insurance companies to pay for them, which isn't easy because a sophisticated AK prostheses can end up costing 50 or 60k when all is said and done.

Re:power consumption

[Scrameustache]

The article states the the prosthetic generates its own power, probably a kinetic power generator.

I saw a tv "documentary" on this: The calf of the leg is a battery (or was in one of their prototypes), and the person wearing it, btw, wears a special sole in his other shoe that gives the bionic leg information on when he's stepping and lifting his foot and so on.

Re:Another application?

[YU Nicks NE Way]

Is it inconvenient? Well, that depends. If you don't mind having your leg broken in two places with a chisel, then having someone take a 3/4 in bit to the butt ends of the long bones, then glue in a foreign object...and then sew up the incisions they made to cut your leg off to all that work...why, no, it isn't inconvenient.

Otherwise, I gather it's held to be moderately unpleasant.