Page 8 - The Mobility Project, 2021

TECHNOLOGY
to Keep Up with You!
MOBILITY DEVICES DESIGNED TO FIT YOUR LIFE & LIFESTYLE
SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE, George Jetson flies to work in his space car to labor three hours a day, three days a week, at Spacely Space Sprockets. Arriving at his office, George doesn’t need to hunt for a parking space: His space car instantly folds into a briefcase that George carries to his desk.
Wheelchairs don’t yet fold into briefcases. But assistive tech- nology is absolutely getting smarter, more responsive, lighter weight, smaller, easier to use, and more convenient. Increasingly, the best technology doesn’t just support your mobility needs; it also conforms to your lifestyle and goals.
Extraordinary Exoskeletons
External skeletons — aka, exoskeletons — are best known in the assistive technology world as wearable, motorized combinations of hardware and software that help people to walk. For example,
8 2021 | THE MOBILITY PROJECT
the Parker Hannifin Indego exoskel- eton can be used for gait training, i.e., helping people to improve their walking.
But exoskeletons can have other benefits. A recent study using Ekso Bionics’ GT robotic exoskeleton showed that study participants
with spinal cord injury experi- enced decreased spasticity after
just one training session (Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 2018). Other studies involving people with spinal cord injuries are examining the impact of exoskeleton training on
Parker Hannifin Indego TheMobilityProject.com
By Laurie Watanabe
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/VISUAL GENERATION