This thing looks pretty amazing, just from a technology point of view. I'm not really qualified to know about the medical benefits that the user in the clip is talking about, improved circulation and so forth, but it seems to make sense for that as well.
I think they really need to work on getting the speed of this thing up to a standard walking pace, as it is too many people are going to see it and say that it's too much slower than a wheelchair to be feasible. I suppose at the minute, for general purpose usage, they'd be right. For specific circumstances though, even with the current fairly underwhelming speed I'd think should greatly assist some difficult access areas.
Go New Zealand! It's nice to see them up on the world stage for something other than the Weta Digital for a change.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how devices like this develop over the next few years. I think Rex Version 4 should be a real winner - so long as they don't make try and make it wireless... There's a lot of contact points on a persons legs that could short an antenna out. :)
There's some more details at the Rex Bionics website, but not too many unfortunately - for example there's no mention of range, battery life, speed etc. Hopefully the flurry of media attention they're receiving now encourages them to come forth with a few more details.
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