Researchers at Imperial College in London are working on a new pacemaker that harnesses energy from the beating of the heart. Energy harnessing in this way is similar to watches that rely on kinetic movement to 'charge up'. The idea is that the pacemaker keeps a tiny battery charged, which kicks in when the heartbeat falters—"rather like a solar-powered flashlight that uses the sunshine to power itself and then works in the dark when you need it," says Paul Mitcheson, who leads the study.

This new style of pacemaker is still just a prototype and has yet to be inserted into a human body, but Mitcheson hopes that the device "could prevent the need for replacing pacemakers every six or seven years, which at the moment involves complex heart surgery."

Read more: Bionic Powered Pacemaker

Tens of thousands of people with severe vision loss are set to benefit after the announcement today of a landmark partnership of world-leading Australian research institutes. Bionic Vision Australia will pursue the development of the most technologically advanced bionic eye to improve the sight of people with degenerative or inherited retinal disease.

Bionic Vision Australia’s members include the University of Melbourne, the University of New South Wales, the Bionic Ear Institute, Centre for Eye Research Australia and the Victoria Research Laboratory of NICTA.

Read more: Bionic Eye from Bionic Vision Australia

ExoClimber™ is designed to allow rapid ascent of stairs and steep slopes while providing the same long term load carrying capability of ExoHiker™.

Weight: 50 lbf including power unit and on-board computer.

• Payload: the wearer feels no vertical load with weight up to 150 lbf.
• Noise: As quiet as an office printer.
• Mission Range : At least 600 foot ascent per pound of battery while carrying 150 pound payload.

  Example: The Empire State Building is 1200' tall and one would require a two-pound battery to carry a 150-pound load to its top floor.

  Other optional energy sources include a small fuel cell.

• Interface: small hand-held LCD display.
• Special features: Easy-Stow™ retractable legs, quick release emergency egress from backpack and/or exoskeleton.

• Read more: Exoclimber from Berkely Bionics

The Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC™) is the third generation exoskeleton system from Berkeley Bionics. More than 900 experiments with many combinations of hardware and control algorithms support the rationale behind the design of HULC™. It incorporates the features of ExoHiker™ and ExoClimber™, exhibiting two independent characteristics:

1) It takes up to 200 pounds without impeding the wearer (Strength Augmentation)

2) It decreases its wearer's metabolic cost (Endurance Augmentation).

While the first characteristic requires little explanation, the 2nd characteristic is a compelling and a competitive advantage of HULC™ completely absent in any other exoskeleton system. During some preliminary evaluations, the oxygen consumption of the users walking at a speed of 2 MPH, was decreased by 5%~12% when using our HULC™ without a payload. When the users carried a load, the effect was more pronounced. The oxygen consumption of these users carrying an 81 pound approach load at a speed of 2MPH was decreased by about 15% when using the prototype HULC™.

Read more: HULC from Berkeley Bionics

Exoskeletons are bionic devices that a user can wear to increase strength in terms of lifting or endurance. There are currently three main manufacturers. They are Berkely Bionics who are aiming for military use. Honda and Cyberdine have developed their exoskeletons towards assisting the disabled and elderly to walk as well as for injured patients during rehabilitation. Perhaps these devices could soon completely replace wheel chairs.

Berkely Bionics currently manufactures three generations of exoskelton products — the ExoHiker, the ExoClimber and the latest model called HULC. After a person slips their feet into the boots, they can carry 150 pounds on his or her back with minimal effort. The user’s agility is preserved while running or even when kicking (karate style). The entire device including the computer, power unit and battery weighs about 31 pounds. Designed for military use these exoskeltons from Berkely Bionics can operate outdoors. The 80 watt-hour battery allows the wearer 21 hours of walking time at an average speed of 2.5 mph, and a small solar panel could potentially power it indefinitely.

Read more: Comparison of Exoskeletons

2008: Professor Yoshiyuki SankaiTsukuba University, Tokyo, has been developing a robot suit, called the “Hybrid Assistive Limb” also known as HAL

HAL is primarily developed to upgrade the existing physical capabilities of the human body. Currently HAL is used by people with weakened muscles and by some people with disabilities due to stroke and/or spinal cord injury. Theoretically speaking, HAL has many other applications.

The suit is designed for paralyzed people in order to help them walk again by detecting their next move and stimulating their muscles in order to move their limbs. According to its creator the suit, through continuous practice, can rehabilitate handicapped people.

Read more: HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) from Cyberdine

For patients with type 1 diabetes, its a never ending delicate art to maintain the right blood sugar levels. Although it still has to be worn on the outside, the small artificial pancreas could make the process a whole more convenient.

Researchers from multiple institutions are working on software that would allow a continuous glucose monitor and an insulin pump to work together, allowing the patient to continuously have the right amount of insulin in his blood without having to punch in the dosage themselves.

Patients with type 1 diabetes make little or no insulin, a hormone normally produced by the pancreas that breaks down glucose in food into energy. Insulin injections prevent too much sugar from accumulating in their blood, which can lead to a diabetes-induced coma. The artificial pancreas would improve diabetes control. Currently, diabetics who regularly check their blood sugar spend less than 30 percent of their day in a normal insulin range, says the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), which is funding research on the technology.

Read more: Artificial Pancreas from JDRF

Monkeys with tiny sensors wired to their brains have learned to reach, grip and eat using a robotic arm. This is an advance that foreshadows bionic limbs that could restore motion for people with disabilities, researchers said.

In the experiment, two macaque monkeys were given prosthetic arms, complete with shoulders, elbows and finger-like grippers. The arms were linked to electrodes that transmitted signals from areas of the brain that control movement. Nerve signals powered the arms to grab marshmallows and fruit, which the primates popped into their mouths “all in one natural-looking motion,'’ said the article, reported in the journal Nature.

Read more: Brain-Wired Bionic Arms used on Monkeys

The construction of ExoHiker™ was completed in February 2005. The ExoHiker™ was designed for carrying heavy loads during long missions. It weights 31 lbf including the power unit, batteries and on-board computer. The Payload is 150 lbf while the wearer feels no load. Noise is virtually imperceptible and can be compared to an office printer.

Mission Duration without small pack-mounted solar panel: 42 miles for a pound of battery (Lithium Polymer) at the average speed 2.5 mph. With a small solar panel, its mission time will be unlimited. Due to an unprecedented actuation and power delivery technology, an 80 W-hour battery which weighs 1.2 pounds is sufficient to power this exoskeleton to carry 150 pound of load for 21 hours while the wearer feels no load on her/his shoulder.

Read more: Exohiker by Berkeley Bionics

Researchers at the University of Michigan are working on new filter systems by precisely controlling the size and shape of pores in the membranes across which the blood is filtered. This would produce a smaller and more efficient device.

End-stage renal disease is when there is total or near-total loss of kidney function and patients need dialysis or transplantation to stay alive. Dialysis currently only provides about 10 or 15 per cent of filtration rate so you have to use pharmaceuticals to provide all of the other things the kidney normally does. It is much preferable to have a transplant, but only one a small percentage will actually get one so there is a great push to develop better kidney replacement devices also known as dialysis machines.

Doctors have been attempting to make smaller and more efficient filters, with the ultimate goal of getting them small enough to be wearable or implantable. While dialysis machines are getting smaller, and some can fit into a suitcase, the prospects of a "wearable" kidney remain some years away.

Source: University of Michigan