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The REX Robotic Exoskeleton
ElectricSteve writes "When Robert Irving was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, it was the catalyst for him and his childhood friend, Richard Little, to turn their engineering skills to the task of developing an exoskeleton that was a practical, standing-and-walking alternative to wheelchairs. The result is REX, an exoskeleton made of strong, lightweight materials that is designed to support and hold a person comfortably as he moves. Users strap themselves in to the robotic legs with a number of Velcro and buckled straps that fit around the legs, along with a belt around the waist. While most robotic exoskeletons we've looked at, such as the HAL, augment human motion, this is generally not an option for wheelchair-bound users, so REX is controlled using a joystick that sits at the wearer's waist level." The rig is expected to cost $150K when introduced later this year in New Zealand. Gizmag has an obnoxious timed popover subscription nag, so NoScript is indicated.
150K is just way too high for people to afford. People who use wheelchairs don't represent a significant market force. Traditional capitalism will burn these people (see iBot). There needs to be a huge government investment in technology similar to this. Applying Laissez-Faire to this community is fucking cruel. Also, how much of the 150k is for parts? How many hours go into making one of these devices? What you're going to end up with is a lot of people who use wheelchairs are going to want one of these devices but are going to be SOL. We need one of these devices to cost no more than the typical car. Also, something about the video didn't makes sense. I suspect some not-so-clever marketing. People who use wheelchairs move the towels down to where they can reach them. If he uses this thing to fetch a towel, he has to get up in the morning and get into his wheelchair, transfer to REX, fetch the towel, transfer back into his wheelchair, and transfer into the shower. Why not just move the towels low enough to reach and save yourself a lot of time?
A segway doen't give many benefits over a electrified wheelchair; and the strap-in/stand-up procedure would be pretty complicated, so I don't belive that would be really usefull.
"Please note, when doing robotics work, calling any part of your creation "HAL" is usually a mistake..."
You might think so, but apparently a lot of people disagree (and that's just the "notable" projects.) On one hand, a lot of tech projects like that are founded by geeky people, who are inclined to say "I know that [X] was a bad guy, but he totally kicked ass!" and name their company/project/product after it anyways. On the other hand, every time something like that comes up (HAL, Skynet, and lots of others i'm sure) people joke about "I'm sorry, i can't let you do that" or whatever is appropriate, but very few seriously believe the item in question is actually dangerous just because of the name. So what does that really mean? Free publicity.
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Yes, I got that idea. Because like you, I am an idiot who doesn't understand that technology is more expensive when it is new and hasn't gone mass-market.
This. Seriously.
Not to mention, this isn't just new experimental hardware that hasn't gone mass market yet. This is new experimental medical hardware that hasn't gone mass market yet. I'm honestly incredibly surprised it is this cheap.
What would even make anyone think that "wheelchair bound rich people" is a large enough population to warrant such an involved and technologically impressive scam?
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