Paraplegic Air Force pilot walks again, thanks to ReWalk!

Watching reruns of the cult classic ‘Robocop’, one could never imagine the possibility of somebody being given a new lease of life simply by wearing an electric sensory suit. But then in real life, wonders never cease. Meet Lt. Ian James Brown, the man who literally came back from the dead, and now actually walks among us with the help of a customized exoskeleton suit called the ReWalk.

ReWalk

Brown, now a retired paraplegic Air Force pilot was paralyzed from the chest down since 2002 in a freak motorcycle accident, while driving back to Hanscom Air Force base in Bedford, Mass. While it took him some time to come to terms with his tragedy, he is today independently taking baby steps across the Bronx VA Hospital, all thanks to the ReWalk.

So how does this suit work? Well, through five basic components. The first one is the wristwatch, which also doubles up as the main control device that allows the user to "sit-to-stand, walk, ascend, descend, and stand-to-sit." Second component, hidden in the suit’s hip area, is called the tilt sensor as it measures the angle of the user’s posture and sends it as a signal back to the computer, which is the third component.

The user has to carry this computer in a special black backpack, as once it analyzes the signals sent from the sensor, it then allows the body suit, and thereby the user to lean forward, anywhere between 4 and 22 degrees. The fourth part of this suit is it’s cool exoskeleton, or the outer bones and joints that you see. Made of pure aluminum and steel, cased in hard plastic, these are molded according to the users comfort and take about 3-6 hour to fit. The last feature of this suit are of course the crutches, as they help the user retain his balance through all the above machinations.

The first military man to test this device, Brown himself is in awe of it and of what it has offered him. He says, "The first time I saw myself walk on video, I said, 'Wow,'. The VA spinal-cord-injury doctors expect him to master this machine by the end of summer. Hopefully, Brown will not be the last man to benefit from this technological marvel, as its inventor, a quadriplegic himself, hopes to release cheaper versions of this suit by next year, intended solely for home use. ReWalk, created by an Israeli company called Argo for now costs $90,000.

Via New York Post