Bionic Leg Makes Amputee Faster on His Feet

Craig Hutto considers himself part bionic man. In 2005, doctors amputated his leg after a shark attacked him during a fishing trip off the Florida Gulf Coast.This powered prosthetic is better at anticipating the next move

"I was 16 years old at the time," recalls Hutto. "My brother heard me yell: 'What was that?' He saw something take me under; he saw the back fin of the shark. There was so much tissue damage and so much flesh gone that it was just irreparable."

Two years later and game for a challenge, Hutto became the test pilot for a unique and powerful new prosthetic leg being developed by mechanical engineer Michael Goldfarb and his team at Vanderbilt University. The effort was kick-started by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

"We were able to develop an early prototype that demonstrated that you could have a leg that was light enough and could deliver biomechanical levels of torque and power," says Goldfarb.

Version 1.0 evolved into a more streamlined version 2.0, which is computer controlled, with advanced range of motion in the joints. Version 2.0 was funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health.

"This is a battery that powers everything," explains Goldfarb, holding up the latest version and pointing to the various components. "You have a motor that drives the knee joint, another motor that drives the ankle joint. There is a whole computer board that essentially tells the motors what to do with the joints."

In Goldfarb's lab, Hutto straps on the prosthetic and "walks the walk" on a treadmill--each step recorded by an array of cameras to help engineers improve the mechanics, electronics and software.

Brian Lawson, a mechanical engineer and member of Goldfarb's team, says what makes this prosthetic stand out is the on-board computer. "What I think makes people think that it's bionic is the computing capability that infers what the user is trying to do and works synergistically with the user to provide the torque at the right time."

The prosthetic leg is designed to respond to cues from the wearer. For example, when Hutto goes from walking to climbing stairs, he gives a signal and the bionic leg responds. "I kind of kick my thigh back just a little bit," says Hutto, "and just that little movement tells it, 'Hey you're about to walk upstairs,' and it switches mode into the stair ascent."

To reduce the risk of injury, Goldfarb's team has intentionally programmed a slight delay into the leg's computer to make sure the wearer and the prosthetic stay in perfect step with each other, and to make walking easier. "The leg can move with you," says Goldfarb.

Hutto confirms it takes less effort to walk compared to the prosthetic he currently wears. "With my leg, it's harder because it's always a step behind. I'm having to use my hip to swing my leg through, whereas the Vanderbilt Powered Prosthetic, when it toes off, the power swings the leg through and so I'm not having to use my hip to swing it through."

Goldfarb says after years of work, they have sold their technology to a major prosthetic manufacturer. "We'll know in the next few years if these are going to come onto the market and really gain a lot of traction," he says.

Meanwhile, Hutto, inspired by the three nurses who saved him from bleeding to death, is studying to become a nurse and looking forward to one day walking tall on the bionic leg that he helped make a reality.

Fully Operational Tron Light Cycle Now Street-Legal and For Sale

If you are looking for the perfect motorcycle or just to go mano-a-mano with Jeff Bridges, look no further. TheLight Cycle from the 2010 film Tron: Legacy is not only street-legal, but it’s actually for sale. And even with a price tag of $55,000, there is a wait list!

Sorry, Jeff Bridges is sold separately.

Made with a steel frame and a fiberglass body, the bike is 8 1/2 feet long, with a width of 23 1/4 inches and a height of 28 1/2 inches, and built to order.

Electroluminescent strips built into the tire cowlings, wheel rims, and body illuminate the cycle. It is powered by a fuel-injected Suzuki 996cc, 4-stroke engine. Riders lay at a near-horizontal position astride the padded leather seat, with feet on foot pegs that control its 6-speed constant mesh manual transmission and hands on the handlebars for throttle and braking. The hubless wheels are former truck tires built up then custom-shaped to fit onto one of two counter-rotating rims spinning within each other, providing the broad-tired authenticity of the computer cycles from the movie. A chain-driven friction drum manages acceleration and braking from the handlebars. It uses a 3 1/2-gallon main fuel tank and 1 1/4-gallon reserve tank.

SUN DRAGS SPACE JUNK OUT OF EARTH ORBIT

Hey guys,
 

Have u ever realized the fact that we are constantly sending satellites to the space year after year from a few decades now and whats happening to it after it has completed its mission???

  It is an alarming incident happening in the outer space these days that the junk of the satellites left over after being used up is creating a circumstance known as "Kessler Syndrome." Yes guys it is for your notice that in future if this kin of a thing continues then it might happen that all the research works related to space and travel would be jammed. NASA recently observed this phenomenon occuring in the low-Earth orbit. Moreover the sun flares coming out are to some extent responsible for this blockage too.

So do you think the researchers are sleeping hearing this problem. Absolutely NO. The scientist at NASA have launched a program named " NASA Orbital Debris Program" to get out of such situations. According to the latest report produced by them the Sun can act as help to us clearing those scrubs working as vacuum cleaner.

Another way is the brilliance of mankind and the process goes as follows

Spacecraft sent to other planets -- such as the Mars satellites -- use this high altitude atmospheric drag to slow them down just before orbital insertion, a maneuver called "aerobreaking."

As the debris slows, Earth's gravity pulls it to lower altitudes where the atmosphere is even thicker. Thicker atmosphere = more drag = slower debris. Eventually the debris reenters the atmosphere sooner than it would do without the solar influence, burning up safely (for the most part).

Of the 3,218 cataloged debris from the Fengyun-1C destruction, only 6 percent of the pieces have reentered the atmosphere. But half of those pieces came down in the last 12 months, highlighting the part increased solar activity had to play in removing the debris from orbit.