The world’s most advanced bionic hand

The world's first commercially available bionic hand took many hands many years to develop. Created by Touch Bionics, it's multi-articulating, meaning each finger has its own motor.

Artificial hands are often hooklike, limited to simple open and close gestures, but the iLimb has more subtle capabilities, like a credit-card grip for grasping narrow objects. It also has a power hold for larger things like coffee mugs. Research on the device began in the United Kingdom's national health system back in the 1960s.

One of the key features is the material from which the bionic hand is made of, i.e. high-strength plastics, which make the i-LIMB lightweight, robust and highly appealing to patients. Developers made it possible for the fingers to be unscrewed from the hand, so it would be easier to service. Previous artificial hands had to be completely removed in case they broke, which was rather uncomfortable since the amputees had to wait for weeks until their prosthetic hand is fixed.

Since the launch of the device, over 400 amputees benefited from the new bionic hand, which was characterized by Stuart Mead, the CEO of Touch Bionics, as one of the company's greatest accomplishments. He was very honored with fact that the i-LIMB was listed in Time magazine along with many incredible inventions of 2008.

Next up for Touch Bionics? A prosthetic wrist unit, prosthetic fingers and a full bionic arm.
See the hand in action: http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/12/21/the-worlds-most-advanced-bionic-hand/

Cell Phone for Blind people

CELL PHONE FOR THE BLIND AND FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

Blind users hear the contents of the document read in clear synthetic speech, while users who can see the screen and those with learning disabilities can enlarge, read, track, and highlight printed materials using the phone's large and easy-to-read display. The combination of text-to-speech and tracking features makes interpreting text much easier for individuals with learning disabilities.

K -NFB Reading Technology, a company combining the research and development efforts of the National Federation of the Blind and Kurzweil Technologies, unveils an exciting product line that will revolutionize access to print for anyone who has difficulty seeing or reading print, including the blind and learning disabled. The company’s world-renowned reading software has been especially designed for and paired with the Nokia N82 mobile phone to create the smallest text-to-speech reading device in history.

Cell phone and Reader combination
Blind users will have access to all of the functions featured in the most advanced cell phones on the market including video and music playback, GPS, wireless communications, photography, e-mail, text messaging, calendar and task functions, and more. The combination Reader and cell phone weighs 4.2 ounces and can store thousands of printed pages with easily obtainable extra memory. Users can transfer files to computers or Braille notetakers in seconds.

knfbREADER Mobile with a user friendly interface
"The knfbREADER Mobile allows me immediate access to printed information, whether it be a menu or a letter," said James Gashel, vice president of business development for K-NFB Reading Technology, Inc. and a blind user of the product. "So many people already carry cell phones. This innovation is exciting because it puts all of the functions that users need into one product, eliminating the need to carry multiple devices. The Reader's simple user interface makes it ideal for the growing number of blind seniors."

Cell phone for disabled people
"Technology that enlarges the printed word or converts it to speech has dramatically improved the lives of millions of Americans with many types of disabilities, enabling them to read and comprehend printed materials to which they never before had access," said Ray Kurzweil, President and CEO of K-NFB Reading Technology, Inc. "This innovation has created opportunities disabled people had never considered before due to the large amounts of reading required in certain occupations. The first machine of this type was the size of a washing machine. As optical character recognition technology is integrated into smaller and smaller devices, access to print becomes available almost instantaneously."