Science is going one step further for people with motor disabilities.
The team at Ekso Bionics has created a wearable exoskeleton, which will allow people with lower extremity weakness or paralysis to stand and walk again.
The latest technology from the Richmond, Calif., company was showcased in the first episode of Cyborg Nation — a video project from Wired and Reddit, which was released earlier this month.
The futuristic suits, which will be released in 2016, use step generator software which helps to shift the wearer’s weight.
Activated sensors, along with a battery-powered motor, move the legs forward.
WIRED/VIA YOUTUBEMatt Tilford, paralyzed from the waist down, walks with the help of an exoskeleton from Ekso Bionics.
The bionic suit also includes attachable crutches meant to aid with balance.
The video showed Matt Tilford walking for the first time in three years after being paralyzed from the waist down.
“One of the things I’ve learned, being in a wheelchair, is that the world looks down on you,” he said.
This cutting-edge invention is just the beginning in an attempt to make wheelchairs a necessity of the past, Ekso’s co-founder Russ Angold said in the video.
WIRED/VIA YOUTUBEThe company hopes to eradicate the need for wheelchairs with the help of these skeletons for walking.
“I see a future of Ekso skeletons where people are grabbing them out of their garage to go on a run through the mountains,”he said.
Other episodes of the series have featured mind-controlled machines and robotic hands able to feel textures and temperatures.