Brian Shaffer tests an exoskeleton developed by researchers at Vanderbilt University at a rehabilitation center in Franklin, Tenn. The exoskeleton locks around the legs and feet. To stand up, a paralyzed person simply leans forward.
Credit Courtesy of Robert Markowitz/NASA
NASA recently announced the development of an exoskeleton for paraplegic rehabilitation use and astronaut strength training. NASA engineer Shelley Rea demonstrates the X1 Robotic Exoskeleton for resistive exercise, rehabilitation and mobility augmentation.
Credit Dan Kitwood / Getty Images
Paralyzed from the waist down, Amanda Boxtel walks with the aid of a bionic exoskeleton in London in 2011. Users learn to walk in the Ekso Bionics device with rehabilitation technicians controlling their steps before walking on their own.
Credit Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
Claire Lomas, a paraplegic, walks the last mile of the London Marathon in May 2012. Starting out with 36,000 other runners, she averaged two miles a day with the help of a bionic ReWalk suit by Argo Medical Technologies.
Credit Courtesy of Parker Hannifin Corp/Ekso Bionics/Argo Medical Technologies/Rex Bionics
From left to right, the Vanderbilt exoskeleton, the Ekso Bionics exoskeleton, ReWalk by Argo Medical Technologies and Rex by Rex Bionics.
Credit Shepherd Center
A patient wears the Vanderbilt device in his wheelchair. The Vanderbilt researchers say that it has some advantages over others. It's lighter, breaks into three parts and fits in a small wheelchair.
Credit Adrian Malloch / Rex Bionics
Engineers at Rex Bionics in New Zealand developed an exoskeleton that allows people paralyzed from the waist down to walk again. Unlike other models, the Rex exoskeleton has a joystick control and doesn't require crutches.
Credit Joy Wilson / University of Houston
Steve Holbert (center), a paraplegic, demonstrates NeuroRex, a bionic exoskeleton suit augmented with a neural interface cap, developed by researchers at the University of Houston. Holbert controlled the robot's movements with his thoughts.
Credit Argo Medical Technologies
Robert Woo and Theresa Hannigan, both paraplegics, complete a one-mile walk in the ReWalk exoskeleton, developed by an Israeli company called Argo Medical Technologies. Argo's devices have been approved for personal use in Europe, but need FDA approval for sale in the U.S.
Credit Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
Claire Lomas walks the last mile of the London Marathon on May 8, 2012 in London, England. After a riding accident left her paralyzed from the waist down in 2007, Lomas completed the race walking 2 miles a day over 16 days with the help of a ReWalk bionic suit (by Argo Medical Technologies).
Let's talk now about the shakeup at the top of Microsoft. Fewer than three weeks after the unveiling of a new, extensively redesigned Windows operating system, the executive responsible for its launch is gone. NPR's Wendy Kaufman has more.
Steven Sinofsky introduces a new Microsoft tablet computer and Windows 8 software to the media in Shanghai on Oct. 23. The former president of Microsoft's Windows division has since left the company.
Credit Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Scott Forstall demonstrates the new map application featured on iOS 6 during the 2012 Apple WWDC keynote address in San Francisco in June. Apple announced in October that he will leave the company.
In less than a month, two instrumental figures at two of the world's biggest tech companies have left their positions. Now industry watchers wonder whether the departures at Microsoft and Apple will mean dramatic changes of direction for the tech giants.
Robert Siegel speaks with Harper Reed, who was chief technology officer for the Obama reelection campaign, about the strategies they employed to mobilize volunteers and reach voters.
Titan, the new supercomputer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, has been crowned the fastest in the world. It can clock 17.59 petaflops (quadrillions of calculations per second). Audie Cornish talks to Steve Henn for more.
One of the most dangerous things you can do behind the wheel of your car is text or check your email. Texting and driving is illegal in 39 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and Guam.
Despite the danger, millions of us continue to do it. I am ashamed to say that I was one of them.
During the recent presidential campaign, I was on the road — a lot. I was mainly driving on rural roads in places such as Iowa, Indiana and, of course, Ohio. On several occasions I checked my email while driving, and like many people I rationalized my behavior.
Men look at mobile phones at the Adjame market in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The market for mobile telephones in developing countries has grown quickly, and now Facebook and Google are trying to get users to use the Internet on their devices.
Originally published on Sat November 10, 2012 12:47 pm
The chances are slim that a person living in poverty in a developing nation has access to the Internet on a computer. It's expensive and, in some places, there's a lack of infrastructure to support it.
The chances are better, though, that that person owns a cellphone. It's probably not an iPhone or an Android, and he or she probably hasn't purchased a data plan for it, but it has the ability to access the Internet.
Google believes that this category of cellphone user is the future of its expansion.
