One of the greatest thrills of managing this blog is seeing truly world-changing wearable tech. This is nothing against stuff that lets you access your smartphone better or projects tweets on your t-shirt. Sometimes, however, it is just amazing to see the real world implications some of this tech leads to. Nowhere is this more felt than in the world of medical research. We’ve written about all kinds of exoskeletons and similar creations before but this one new might just take the robotic cake.
Ekso Bionics have began selling a consumer grade version of their extremely useful robot suit. This suit quite literally makes the lame walk again. It is the perfect fit for those paralyzed from the waist down or those suffering from extreme weakness in the extremities. All you do is slip it on and work with the robotic legs and before long you’ll be walking again. The suit works for around six hours on one charge and offers a variety of walk modes, including one with a physical therapist present and two you can enjoy on your own.
The company says around 50 have sold so far, mostly to medical facilities. They estimate that around 500-1000 patients have been helped by the device, which they say will increase exponentially in the coming year. The only bad part about this emerging tech? The pricetag. Just one of these suits will set you back a full $110,000. Sure, that’s a lot of money. That’s why it is probably best to just head to a hospital or clinic that has a few of them already and bill using it to your insurance. Here is a video of the suit in action.
