Sparky Robotic Ankle from Kenneth Fagan on Vimeo.
The six-million dollar man is starting to sound cheaper by the day (they forgot to take inflation into account), as more and more advancements are made in the world of bionics for humans. The latest among these would be SPARKy (Spring Ankle with Regenerative Kinetics), a robotic ankle system which helps amputees get around with a literal spring in their step – it will store energy in its spring and motors, releasing it bit by bit to provide an extra push during the walking gait. When amputees use a standard prosthetics, research has shown for them to expend 20~30% more energy just to swing it around, but SPARKy isn’t an energy parasite so to speak, helping one walk more naturally. Too bad it costs a whopping $20,000, so for Christmas we’re hoping they’d play the role of a permanent Santa and reduce its price drastically for more people to experience its benefits.
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