During the 2014 biennial FSHD patient conference in Boston, the FSH Society arranged for a group to visit the MIT Media Laboratory, where Professor Hugh Herr leads a visionary team developing prostheses powered by robotics and artificial intelligence. We knew not only that our members would be fascinated by the research but we also wanted Dr. Herr’s Biomechatronics group to consider the needs not just of amputees who need artificial limbs, but of an even larger community of individuals with conditions like muscular dystrophy, who need better orthotics. Dr. Herr told us his team was in fact working on a foot-ankle exoskeleton. So we were excited to see this technology demonstrated last night on CBS’s 60 Minutes’ feature about the Media Lab. Also amazing is a device that detects nerve signals sent to the vocal cords, deciphers them into words, and transmits them to a computer. Watch below.
Watch: CBS 60 Minutes Overtime.
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