Imitating Human Hands to Make Better Sensors

This work could help severely injured people, such as soldiers, regain the ability to control their movements.

Electronic Skin Sensor Decodes Human Motion

This system can track the motion of the entire body with a small sensory network.

Autonomous HVAC System Measures Facial Temperature

The system turns faces into thermostats, providing more comfort with less energy.

Human-Like Hands with Flexible, Hybrid Pneumatic Actuators

These hands, with a large grasping force, enable safer human-robot interactions.

Upper Body Robotic Exoskeleton

This lightweight, portable garment is designed for active shoulder and elbow positioning.

Technology Aids Surgeon-Guided Robotic Hands

This method enables users to control their robotic fingers precisely enough to gently land on fragile surfaces.

2020 Create the Future Design Contest: Consumer Product Design Category Winner — The Ring Prosthetic Leg

The conceptual Ring prosthetic leg ensures that individuals do not need an entirely new device every time they have a growth spurt.

Glove-Like Device Mimics Sense of Touch

The soft, wearable device simulates the sense of touch and has wide potential in medical and industrial applications.

Smart, Self-Powered Knee Implants

These implants can provide doctors with regular activity updates and are powered by the patient’s movement.

Octopus-Inspired Soft Robotic Arm

The Tentacle Bot can grip, move, and manipulate a wide range of objects.

5 Ws of the Sign-to-Speech Translation Glove

People who use sign language could communicate directly with non-signers, without needing someone else to translate for them.

Flexible Feet Help Robots Walk Faster

This technology can help robots walk up to 40 percent faster on uneven terrain such as pebbles and wood chips.

Smart Surgical Microscope

Imaging technology used to map the universe shows promise for more accurately and quickly identifying cancer cells in the operating room.

Trunk Support Assists Those with Spinal Cord Injury

The device retrains patients with spinal cord injury to sit more stably and gain an expanded active sitting workspace.

Augmented Reality System Lets Smartphone Users Interact with Virtual Objects

This system places virtual objects within real-world backgrounds on cellphone screens and lets people interact with those objects by hand as if they were really there.

Dynamic Gripper Mimics Adjustable Grip of the Human Hand

Such grippers would be suited for human-robot partnership in assembly lines in the automotive, electronic packaging, and other industries.

Wireless Sensor “Stickers” Track Physiological Signals

These stickers wirelessly beam health readings to a receiver clipped onto clothing.

Human Torso Simulator

The simulator could help in the development of new back braces.

Unpowered, Lightweight Ankle Exoskeleton

This low-profile ankle exoskeleton integrates into a shoe and fits under clothing.

5Ws of the Ear Infection Smartphone App

Who

Ear infections are the most common reason that parents bring their children to a pediatrician, according to the National Institutes of Health.

A Sensor that Fits Like a Glove

We recently had a discussion with Sri Peruvemba, VP of Strategy at BeBop Sensors (Berkeley, CA), about the technology and applications for their two-dimensional fabric sensor material. I started by asking Sri...

Q&A: Harvard's Siyi Xu Designs All-New Strain and Force Sensors

Working with teams from Harvard, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Boston Children's Hospital, Siyi Xu developed a soft, non-toxic, wearable sensor that attaches to the...

Artificial Joint Restores Wrist-Like Movements

For patients missing a hand, one of the biggest challenges to regaining a high level of function is the inability to rotate one's wrist (pronate and supinate). These are essential movements...

Portable Brain Imaging System

Currently, concussion is measured by the symptoms someone experiences, but it is difficult to know what is happening in the brain in any one person. To address this problem, a portable brain imaging system was...

Rubber-Like Adhesive Film Sticks to Highly Deformable Areas

Adhesives used for common pain-relieving bandages often do not stick properly when attached to places that encounter large, inhomogenous bending motion, like elbows and knees. To...

Plastic Bearings Reduce Weight and Improve Durability

When engineer Mark Doyle started to put together plans for an exoskeleton to support surgeons in 2012, he wanted to develop a lightweight product that they could wear comfortably for...

Force Sensing — An Addition to the Physical Therapy Toolbox

Undergoing treatment for a physical injury or condition can be a long and frustrating experience. Broken bones, sprains, torn muscles or ligaments, as well as painful conditions...

Non-Invasive Intracranial Pressure Measurement

An acknowledged objective of critical-care medicine is a timely, accurate, readily deployable, cost-effective, and, importantly, safe means of assessing and/or monitoring critical...