This Amazing Device Just Made Wheelchairs Obsolete for Paraplegics
 

The young man in this video looks like he's riding a Segway. But Yusuf Akturkoglu was paralized after falling from a horse five years ago, and he's being mobilized by an amazing device invented by Turkish scientists. It's going to change lives.

Looks good. I bet it tips over easier than a wheelchair though and good luck if you run into any stairs or curbs.

Being able to get on it, and to the bathroom solo and fairly easily is a big win though. So is flipping from sitting to standing.

Looks interesting, but i bet its gona cost a fortune... much more then a wheelchair

I hope people don't play with this remote, that would be cruel.

Got ground clearance?

I think the ground clearance must be kept low to keep the center of gravity low. Otherwise, like Nightwalker mentions, it would increase the chance of tipping over.

This is amazing new tech. Pretty awesome!

Might be harder for him to pee?

Yeah I saw this in an HK drama recently (On Call 36). Like both the drama and the video say, being able to interact with others at eye level is extremely important to a person's self esteem. This is definitely a great fix, but I wonder how much one fo these cost..

This is even better:

But it all about battery life. right now the battery life is not that great.

^^^

I liked how happy that lady was in the video. That technology is awesome. She'll really be pleased when they put her in the powerloader:
http://www.pinktentacle.com/images/power_loader.jpg

that thing looks great, but two things they have to take in account are;

cost - that thing looks really expensive and on top of that, maintenance looks like it
will be required as well.

not for everybody - i think this will work for everybody young and strong enough to pull themself up, but older people with arthritus or weak bones... it's a good idea but i think it's way too clunky.

ya but now you can't have ballin' chrome spinners.

I think everyone watched the first 30 seconds then posted..

If you look at it closely, the technology being utilized does not appear overly ground breaking. Rather, it appears existing and well developed technology being used in an innovative way.

They specifically mention the difficulty older people have mounting conventional wheel chairs in the video, so I don't think they're short sighted enough to perpetuate the problem they're trying to solve. The lift upwards appears to be assisted, not entirely done with ones own strength.

Wheel chairs already cost a fortune, but aside from that, look at my point above. Existing technology utilized in an existing way should help keep the costs down.

I know a unit similar to the robotic skeleton but less advanced is already on the market for around $100k, and since this is somewhat of a midpoint between the two it should be decently priced.

That's a strange thought to have...

I think it would be much much easier actually, since the dismount and mount from the toilet would be the difficult part and making that part easier is one of the key features.

Maybe on a later model they could put in a gyroscope like a segway to raise ground clearance.

Sure, if you're rich.

I have a good buddy of mine that would put this into great use as he's wheelchair bound.

However, I remember when he usually gets out of his wheelchair and onto a couch/chair, he throws himself onto the couch/chair and when he wants to leave, he throws himself back onto the wheelchair. This procedure takes less than 5 seconds each way.

The person in the video takes a while to get attached to the device (30seconds to a minute). Would people be willing to spend that much time to get across to the other side of the room? or are they confined to this device all day? Also, how are they gonna drive?

Don't get me wrong, its a good idea, but lots of flaws too.

did you guys know that cars and bicycles were for the rich and were silly and clunky devices that would never replace horses when they were introduced too?

i shed a tear...



i wish countries would stop spending trillions on weapons and instead spend them on medical innovations its very rare that we see military advancements that help the average person (which i suspect this derived from)

world would be a better place if the richest, most "democratic" nation would spend a portion of their military spending on finding ways to help people rather than control/kill them


certainly this support can be improved on but so can everything (thats why we have 500 different types of ipods, iphones, ipads, imacs, etc :P) the point is that we have countries/firms somewhere making advancements in helping those that need it

sure it may not be acquirable by everyone... YET but it will be... and if a country decided to budget it they could provide these supports for everyone that needed it instead of making that new bomb/bunker buster thats stronger than a hiroshima nuke but not classified as a nuclear bomb

:facepalm: When a fat ass uses this device..

The US military is also spending big bucks on exoskeleton research. Not just for wounded soldiers but able ones too. With an exoskeleton they will be able to lift a lot more weight and travel farther.

Science! It fucking works!

im happy for all these people, i just fractured my leg and crutches fking suck. i cant imagine being stuck like the for the rest of my life. Hopefully more breakthroughs come soon for the millions of ppl out there who need help with this.

technology is great