Powered up on eLegs

eLegs in action

In San Francisco today, paraplegics are standing and walking on bionic exoskeletons called eLegs designed by Berkeley Bionics.

The eLegs exoskeleton unit is made up of controller crutches, a backpack mounted control unit, and leg units that have both hip and knee rotation systems. The wearer controls leg movement gesture based commands transmitted through the sensors and controls the crutch units.

It is hoped that the eLegs system completes clinical trial by mid next year. The eLegs system could be available to the public by late next year. Updated August 2011.


More Tech @ Berkley Bionics, CNET

Single Atom Image

One Atom of rubidium-85

Scientists in New Zealand managed to take this photo of a single atom of rubidium-85.

They slowed down a group of atoms and managed to capture the atom with optical "tweezers" - basically 2 lasers acting like a tractor beam.

Once captured they used a camera designed to take photographs in space, and take this image. This technology is important in the future development of quantum-logic computing.

More Tech @ Popular Science

Many Cards in One

MultiAccount Credit Card

Dynamics Inc has created a new computerized credit card that can re-program its own magnetic stripes and hide its account numbers. Users would press buttons on its face to switch between stored account numbers which are unlocked by entering the correct PIN. 

The card also has a lithium-polymer battery and is fully waterproof. Now you can reduce that fat-wallet effect.

More Tech @ PopSci

Real-Life Iron Man Suit

Raytheon Sarcos XOS 2 exoskeleton

Actor Clark Gregg, who plays Agent Phil Coulsen, in the "Iron Man" movies, demos a real-life exoskeleton called XOS 2, which is very much like the one in the movies.

Engineers at the Salt Lake City, Utah defense contractors offices showed off these images to celebrate the release of "Iron Man 2."

Watch out bad guys, the real Iron Man may not be far off...

More Tech @ Raytheon suit 

Is that a Cell Tower in your Pocket?

What's in your wallet?

Do you need a better cell signal? The researchers of the major telecoms think that they have the answer - a femtocell base station.

With all the current mobile bandwidth quickly being eaten-up by all the fancy multimedia mobile apps that Google, Apple, and others put out, new solutions are being devised to relieve the growing network congestion. 

About the size of a TV remote, a femtocell operates essentially as a portable cell phone tower, but at a much lower power output. It is designed to be used in homes and offices to provide an enhanced mobile signal within a 10-meter radius.

At $150-$250, this may be the answer to your bandwidth problems.

More Tech @ Scientific American

Solar Power Panel D-I-Y

Plug-In Solar Power Panel

In a couple of years, you may find yourself installing your own solar power!

Clarian Power has developed the "Sunfish." A portable, self-installable solar panel that plugs into any outlet for power you can use anywhere in your home. In about an hour you'll be generating your own clean energy.

 Each panel will cost around $600. It should pay for itself in about 3-4 years, after rebates and tax credits.

 More Tech @ Scientific American