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Exoskeleton Allows Paraplegics to Walk, (1250L)

2005 we had a breakthrough in terms of making sure that the weight of the

Notes on my thoughts,

exoskeleton transfers all the way down to the ground. The user who is wearing it --

reactions and questions as I

it usually weighs up to 50 pounds -- doesn't feel the weight at all. And that's so

read:

important because obviously you are trying to make their lives easier, not more

difficult.

CNN: What powers the exoskeleton?

Bender: What we are using here is electric motors, and there are four of them,

which is actually quite unique especially when you compare it to technology used by

amputees. Prosthetics so far have usually had one moving component, and in this

case you have in one system four moving components. You have four motors -- two

sitting at the hips and two at the knees -- and that's what you hear and it's driven by

a battery pack sitting on the back. In the middle, between the two batteries, is a

computer and so that is pretty much it. It's an outer frame that pretty much mimics

the bone structure. There are 15 sensors in it that almost re-create your nerve

system and then there is the computer, which is really the brain of the whole thing.

CNN: What is your long-term hope or vision for this product in terms of

helping people on the medical side?

Bender: Our hope is simply to help people in wheelchairs to live a fuller life. They

already live a pretty full life. They can do pretty much anything except they can't

walk, and that is such a basic need if you think about it. We all learn to walk even

before we learn to talk, and suddenly in the prime of your life you are deprived of

that basic need. We are determined to provide at least a tool that people can have,

whether it is about walking for part of the day or it is in the recovery phase or

rehabilitation or simply in daily living where people want to go about and do things

during the day just like an amputee would use a prosthetic leg during the whole day.

CNN: Will the Ekso exoskeleton eventually be available in homes for people to

use whenever they want?

Bender: Yes. We see it as a companion during the whole day. It's not going to

happen overnight for us to get there. We have been on this journey, working with

the best rehab centers around the world improving the Ekso and making it better.

But at the same time, through working with users in rehab centers, it is helping us

take the first step into homes so that we can develop a product -- and it's probably

going to be products -- that help people not only to gain their health back or get

back on their feet, but simply to become a mobility tool similar to the wheelchair.

The wheelchair by the way has been around for 1,500 years and it is pretty much

the single mobility tool for people that can do pretty much anything else.

Gannon, M., Exoskeleton allows paraplegics to walk, CNN News, March 13, 2013.

Exoskeleton Allows Paraplegics To Walk, (1250l) - Middle School Reading Article Worksheet Page 2