Bluetooth Prosthetics Help US Marine To Walk Again

Like2Byte writes "CNN is reporting that a US Marine who lost both his legs in Iraq is now able to walk again by using bluetooth technology to coordinate his leg movement. The two legs communicate to keep the man in motion. ' [...] Computer chips in each leg send signals to motors in the artificial joints so the knees and ankles move in a coordinated fashion. Bleill's set of prosthetics [legs] have Bluetooth receivers strapped to the ankle area. The Bluetooth device on each leg tells the other leg what it's doing, how it's moving, whether walking, standing or climbing steps, for example.'"

Comments

Bluetooth?!

[LinuxGeek]

I hope they don't fall down when they walk past a microwave oven. I know my bt headset drops info while talking around my microwave. I hope the final devices are a bit more robust.

Re:Bluetooth?!

[KublaiKhan]

I do know that there's a proposed standard for Bluetooth specifically for medical devices--there are some pacemakers and ICDs out there (most of 'em these days, I understand) that have bluetooth built into 'em so that the doctors can read information off of 'em without having to place electrodes and whatnot--and also so that they can patch the firmware, if necessary.

This is why they're using bluetooth, I think, rather than something else--because it's already used for similar medical device communications.