Take stock of wearable equipment that can be used by people with disabilities

The total number of people with disabilities exceeds 80 million, including 12.33 million people with visual impairment, 20.04 million hearing disabilities, 1.27 million speech disabilities and 24.12 million limb disabilities. The issue of disability has become a major social problem facing the world.

How to help people with disabilities better life, integration into society, become the world's attention to people with disabilities thinking of the problem. Wearable equipment is undoubtedly the best way to help people with disabilities. By developing a range of wearable devices to help people with disabilities live as able-bodied people, there is clearly a vast market and development space, such as the use of exoskeleton (exoskeleton) to help paralyzed people get back on their feet and use special glasses to help the blind regain "light", The use of advanced equipment and systems to help the deaf and mute to "speak" and so on, there are many technology companies began to develop and even put into the market. Below, the arterial network is to introduce a number of companies for people with disabilities to develop wearable equipment.

Microsoft

Microsoft recently tested its newly developed products in parts of the UK, a headset designed to help blind and visually-impaired people travel. This product uses the 3D sound Jinggu conduction technology, after paired with the smartphone, then can accept the building the Bluetooth signal, and through the system software carries on the analysis processing, transforms to the 3D prompt sound for the blind navigation. Microsoft is also creating a wrist strap called Alice Band for the Blind and Amblyopia community, and Alice Band's research and development begins with "Understanding the user Experience", which includes tracking testers and drawing "anxiety maps" based on their nervousness. "The device receives information from a sensor installed on a city entity such as a building or train compartment through a receiving device on the user's head." It is reported that Alice band has gained a certain popularity in the UK, Queen Elizabeth has experienced this product and its related performance on July 17.

Google

Google Glass is now the most stylish wearable equipment. But in fact, Google glass may also be a boon to the blind. Developers are trying to combine an Android app called Voice to help blind people determine the location of objects around them through echolocation-like techniques and sound cues, according to sources. This year, a blind man named Simon Wheatcroft even wore a Google Glass to complete the marathon.

Philips & Accenture

And Philips announced recently that Accenture, the information technology consulting giant, is partnering to develop a wearable brain wave tracking device called the Emotiv insight to help patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as "Frozen") provide the possibility of controlling their surroundings. Emotiv Insight scans the patient's EEG brain waves and draws a "brain-computer Interaction Interface", and then the data collected by the device will be transferred to the tablet, allowing people with the disease to control Philips's electronics through tablet computers, such as smart TVs, Light bulbs and calls require medical alarm services. It is reported that this equipment will begin to be listed in 2015 sales.

ReWalk Robotics

ReWalk Robotics's predecessor was the Israeli Argo Jude Technologies Medical Technology company, the founder of Dr. Amit Goffer. Goffer in a car accident in 1997 unfortunately crippled, leading to limb paralysis, the accident makes Goffer deeply feel the pain and inconvenience of people with disabilities. Then, after discharge, he and his friends and colleagues formed a small team, began to research and development can help paraplegic patients to stand up to walk the exoskeleton (exoskeleton) system ReWalk.

In 2010, the company announced its debut of its first generation of ReWalk exoskeleton systems. ReWalk through a number of independent sensors, allowing users to walk independently, and control their own pace, walking form is no different from normal people! Unfortunately, Dr. Goffer himself had no way of using the system because his arms were not working. At present, ReWalk Robotics has a total of two products, respectively, ReWalk personal and ReWalk rehabilitation, the former is mainly suitable for family, work or social environment use, through sensors and monitors, so that patients stand, walk and climb the building. The latter is used for clinical repairs, providing a physical treatment for paralyzed patients, including slowing down limb pain, muscle spasms, helping the intestinal digestive system, and accelerating metabolism. ReWalk Personal is currently priced at about $60,000 trillion, a very high price for ordinary people. But there is a good chance of becoming a part of the health care plan in the future, as the global cost of hospitalization for the sequelae of spinal cord injury is more than $10 billion a year, and is increasing rapidly every year. The use of ReWalk system will greatly reduce the overall cost of hospitalization, the future may be recognized by the insurance companies through health care. At present, ReWalk has passed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certification, become the first through the agency certification of personal exoskeleton products. For more detailed introduction of ReWalk, you can also click on the "ReWalk outside the skeleton to redefine walking."

As of August 1, 2014, the company had sold 62 ReWalk rehabilitation and 19 ReWalk Personal, 88% of which were purchased by customers, 12% of which were placed in clinics and distributors for training, market development and clinical trials. More than 400 ReWalk users have been trained to spend more than 20,000 hours.

The company's financial statements showed revenues of $1.6 million in 2013, up 63% from 2012, and 2014 in the first half, up 18% per cent in the 2013. September 12, 2014, ReWalk Robotics successfully listed in the United States Nasdaq, the first day of stock prices from 13.6 U.S. dollars soared to 25.6 U.S. dollars, up to 113.33%, the company's market value also rose to 200 million U.S. dollars, one after the week in the U.S. market highlights.

Cyberdyne Co., Ltd. (サイバーダイン)

Founded in 2004 by Zhubo University, Cyberdyne Co., Ltd. developed a machine suit suite hal (mixed auxiliary limbs) based on the research results of the co-founder, Zhubo College of Information Engineering, Cybernics Research Center, and Professor Shanhai. HAL has developed 5 generations of products that, through the body's nervous system and muscles, emit a faint electrical signal when the brain is moving its limbs, and a series of sensors mounted on the exoskeleton continue to monitor and collect the signals to act accordingly. Unlike other exoskeleton designs, Hal's design emphasizes integration with the human body, and they think the HAL system should be more like a natural extension of the human body than a power tool. Hal in the case of lithium battery full, can work for 2.5 hours, the maximum weight can reach 70 kg. In 2010, Tianjings, a 48-year-old Japanese who was paralyzed by a car accident, was successfully boarded by the HAL exoskeleton system at the Swiss Alps, more than 4,000 meters above sea level, making Cyberdyne and Hal famous!

Since 2010, Cyberdyne has leased 330 sets of machines to 150 hospitals, welfare homes and other institutions in Japan. The HAL is welcomed by the medical institution in a flexible manner, and the user will be able to lease the money at about $1700 a month (lease time if more than one year is available) for the initial import fee of around $5200.

The application scope of the HAL system developed by Rewalk,cyberdyne is more extensive. Not only for the paraplegic patients, to help them to walk the medical lower extremity exoskeleton system, but also to help normal people to enhance the strength of the civilian body of the external skeleton system, disaster site for the external skeleton system.

Cyberdyne is a typical elite High-tech enterprise, half of the company's employees have doctorates, and the company has been a large number of research institutions and from the government level of support, Japan has Cyberdyne listed as "Japanese Life Innovation Big Country Strategic Development Plan" Important link, the company area will be included in the Zhubo National strategic Zone. Japan already has 3 rehabilitation centers, and Hall was in Japan in 2013 to obtain a global security certification, in Germany has access to health care, and is applying for U.S. FDA certification.

March 26, 2014, Cyberdyne listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange gem, becoming the first listed company in Japan to produce robots for medical and social welfare services. Shanhai, founder and CEO of the company, said in a news conference: "The company's 2013 sales are 1.6 times times 2012, 2014 will reach 2013 years 3~4 times." 2014 should be able to achieve business balance of profit and loss. He also said that although the company since its inception the cumulative loss of 4 billion ~50 billion yen, but in the past a lot of spending on the standard certification and other projects, 2014 will be able to eliminate losses. It is estimated that the company's market capitalisation after the listing of more than 1.8 billion U.S. dollars.

Motion Savvy

Motion Savvy is an innovative company nurtured by Leap Motion hardware accelerator axlr8r, unlike the general company, where 9 members of the company, including founder Ryan Hait-campbell, are deaf. Ryan Hait-campbell, the company's CEO and founder, was deaf when he was five years old and learned to speak with the help of a machine. But most deaf people are not so fortunate, they are insulated from the world's wonderful voice, and now the market is too expensive and intelligent. Ryan Hait-campbell deeply understand the suffering of the deaf and mute, determined to produce a cheap product to help the deaf and mute, so that the deaf people do not have to spend a lot of money to buy those expensive machines, through more than sign language can speak. A few years ago, he read the introduction of leap motion technology in wired Magazine and then planted the seeds of originality. He later met Alex Opalka, a software engineer who had been thinking about similar concepts, and then joined forces, then introduced Jordan Stemper and Wade Kellard, and co-founded Motion Savvy.

The company, which is scheduled to release its motionsavvy product next year, is called "UNI", which includes two hardware and software parts. The hardware part is a tablet computer about the size of the ipad Mini, which embeds a leap motion sensor, which captures sign language from Leap motion when the user (deaf-mute) wants to speak, and then interprets and translates the user's sign language by motion savvy software. First translate it into text to display on the screen, and then "speak out" through a human-translated voice.

So far, Motion Savvy has not been officially released, and has only supported American Sign language for the time being. Motion savvy has been "typing" sign language information for the system over the past year, and Ryan Hait-campbell plans to make motion savvy a sign language message similar to the Google Translate system, which records the deaf-mute. One end translates sign language directly into speech.

The company plans to divide its profits into two categories: the first is to sell to individual users, tablets, accessories, including leap motion sensors, which are planned at $600, and software uses subscription mode. The word library continues to update, users buy the device, each month needs to spend 20 of dollars to subscribe to the software, in other words, if the user does not want to use the company's tablet, you can use their own leap motion or other support leap motion device, through the subscription software to the service. The second is sold to corporate clients and governments. Motion Savvy has begun working with some deaf schools.

But the challenges the start-up company will face are also obvious: different kinds of sign language entry itself is a big project, plus not using the crowdsourcing mode to ensure accuracy, it will need to invest a lot of human and financial resources; On the other hand they rely on leap Motion's sensors, now leap Motion's focus is on PCs and Mac, and for motion savvy, mobile phones are their ultimate goal. Ryan Hait-campbell also said the company's equipment "must eventually be linked to the user's mobile phone is the hardware that people carry every day." ”

Motionsavvy is also seeking capital injections. Its first round of seed financing for software development is nearing completion and is currently being funded through a Indiegogo project to provide uni equipment at $198 per unit, with the goal of raising 40,000 dollars for production. Motionsavvy is also trying to secure an 1.5 million dollar investment in SOS Ventures. Despite the high demand, the service is still receiving test requests.

Thalmic Labs

Thalmic Labs was founded in 2012 in Waterloo, Canada, a science and technology start-up company, the main research areas for the exploration of new human-computer interaction. The company's founder, Stephen Lake, Matthew Bailey, and Aaron Grant, a three-member electronic mechanical engineer from the University of Waterloo.

In early 2013 Thalmic Labs launched its first product Myo. The MYO is a control terminal device that is equipped with electrodes to read the muscle's bio-electrical activity when the user makes a telescopic gesture, and converts it to an operation command, which is transmitted to the electronic device by means of the software as a wireless network. Unlike the medical electrodes, the MYO does not directly contact the skin, and the user simply sets the wrist strap on the arm. At present, the MYO can identify 20 kinds of gestures, and even the small strokes of the fingers can be recognized, users can use gestures to do some commonly used touch screen operations, such as the page to zoom in and out of the scroll and so on. In addition, MYO can be automatically shielded from the irregular noises generated by others. MYO said on the official web, wrist strap to the speed of the capture of gestures can not, sometimes you will even feel that their hands have not started moving MYO already feel. This is because your fingers begin to move before the muscles are activated and start moving. For the disabled, this is a gospel. In the foreseeable future, their prosthetic limbs will be more intelligent. They can wear MYO, only need to move the arm, even through the "mind" can operate their own prosthetic limbs of various activities. Myo is now officially listed, priced at about 149 dollars, and needs to be booked in advance on Thalmic Labs.

Thalmic Labs has won a 14.5 million dollar a round of financing in July 2013, funded by Spark Capital and the Intel capital. The company also received investments including formation 8,,first Round Capital and FundersClub.

Orcam

Orcam is a company based in Israel, founded in 2010 by the Hebrew University professor Amnon Shashua and Ziv Aviram. Although the Israeli start-up has not been established for a long time, it has developed the first system Orcam that can be used for commercial purposes to help blind and visually impaired people navigate themselves.

Orcam is a vision analysis system made up of small cameras and a set of processing systems tied to glasses, according to Orcam, the energy vice president of the company, Naaman. The processing system built in Freescale's chip, the latter high-speed application processor can run a complex computer vision algorithm, so that what is seen to parse, and then through the bone guide voice to tell the wearer-amblyopia group. Users simply point to the direction in which they want to see the object, and the system immediately reports to the user what they see. Therefore, a person with vision impairment, if you want to cross the road, just take this product, pointing at the traffic lights, and then just wait for the equipment to report to him "green light" on it. When shopping at the mall, the user can just pick up a piece of merchandise and the device will tell him the name of the product or even the ingredients. The system can also identify any form of text: whether it is a newspaper, a book, a restaurant menu, or other printed material, Orcam can read what it sees when the user points to the text. At present, the price of this equipment is 2500 dollars, slightly too high. Its future plans include language recognition, including French and Chinese, and plans to increase facial recognition.

And Orcam, which has a potential system that has raised $21 million trillion in investment over the past few months, is rumoured to include 6 million of billions of dollars in venture capital from Intel, but Orcam and a spokesman for the company's Israel division have denied the rumours. "But we still think Orcam is a very successful example in wearable technology, and we want to develop products like Orcam and use it in wearable devices," said a spokesman for Intel. ”

Ducere

Ducere Technology was founded in 2011, the founder of the two Indian engineers Krispian Lawrence and Anirudh Sharma. Both studied and worked in the United States. Krispian Lawrence graduated from MIT and Anirudh Sharma from the University of Michigan. In September this year, the company produced its first smart footwear products for the blind and visually impaired Lechal will be officially sold.

Lechal in Hindi means "Take Me with You". "This pair of shoes is like a natural extension of the human body," said Krispian Lawrence, co-founder of the Ducere company. You can go out without a watch or wrist strap, but you can't go out without shoes. "Lechal smart shoes built-in Bluetooth technology, through tactile feedback and GPS modules for the wearer to provide navigation, Ducere provide full version of shoes or individual insoles, the battery endurance of up to 10 days." The shoes are now priced between 100 and 150 dollars.

Of course, the smart shoes also apply to normal people, such as jogging, mountain bike drivers, and even lost. It can be said that the true "road of the Gospel."