HULC, or Human Universal Load Carrier, is an exoskeleton designed by Lockheed Martin to assist soldiers carrying heavy loads in the field. According to its manufacturer, HULC allows soldiers to carry up to 200 pounds for extended periods of time while preserving the user’s range of movement – including “deep squats, crawls and upper body lifting.”

As you can see in Lockheed’s promotional video above, HULC isn’t a bulky exoskeleton that provides strength in exchange for mobility. Users appear to be able to move quickly and easily even over rough terrain.

The U.S. Army is apparently intrigued by the concept, and this week announced a $1.1 million contract to actually field a few HULC units among active troops. While $1.1 million is a relative drop in the bucket as far as military spending goes, it may foretell a future in which assistive exoskeletons become common in the military for logistics staff and even soldiers engaged in combat.

New Zealand firm Rex Bionics took a different approach with their “robotic legs,” which are designed to allow the disabled to walk. The company notes the Rex is not intended to be a wheelchair replacement, but is instead a way to augment a chair – for instance, when needing to travel up and down stairs or access items stored at a standing height.

Having been in development for the last seven years. the Rex is expected to go on sale “soon” in its home country and is expected to cost $150,000.

After some adjustments to a sophisticated computer program that acts as the brain of the system, all 11 adults in the study had good blood sugar control without experiencing hypoglycemia, even after eating three high-carbohydrate meals.

“This is the first artificial pancreas device that has used both insulin and glucagon,” said Dr. Steven Russell of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who helped lead the study.

The finding is the latest in what has become a race to develop a fully functioning artificial pancreas that can give patients with type 1 diabetes an automated way to control their blood sugar.

Now if they can only shrink it to an implantable size…

My grandfather suffered from age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), which causes loss of vision over time. By the time he passed away in his late 70s, he was almost blind. ARMD progresses from the “inside” of your visual field to the outside, so those affected are unable to see that which they are looking at directly. In some ways, the effects are the opposite of an eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which causes sufferers to lose peripheral vision first, creating a “tunnel vision” effect once the disease is sufficiently advanced.

Because I have a relative that suffered from ARMD, I’m at a 50 percent risk of developing the condition sometime in my life – as do my father, brother, aunts and uncles.

Based on my grandfather’s experience, macular degeneration can be especially frustrating because, although otherwise in good shape both mentally and physically, it becomes difficult or impossible to read, drive, easily watch television or recognize faces. I’m sure other progressive diseases that lead to vision loss are similarly frustrating.

In part because I have a personal stake in seeing treatments and workarounds developed for diseases like ARMD, I was glad to hear that Australian researchers have developed a retinal implant for people with ARMD and RP that will enable them to at least recognize faces and read large-type print:

The device, which is currently undergoing testing, consists of a miniature camera mounted on glasses that captures visual input, transforming it into electrical signals that directly stimulate surviving neurons in the retina. The implant will enable recipients to perceive points of light in the visual field that the brain can then reconstruct into an image.

The research team will next focus on development of a commercial implant that can be placed in the back of the eye and “respond to wireless transmission of vision.”

(Source: ScienceBlog / Image: Bionic Vision Australia)

Researchers in South Korea have successfully transmitted data at broadband speeds between two points on a person’s arm using the body itself as a conduit. The technology is very energy efficient when compared to alternatives like wireless data transfer, and therefore may lend itself to health applications:

It is difficult to monitor vital signs, such as blood sugar and electrical activity of the heart, in a person going about their everyday lives because it means either covering them in snaking wires connected to a recording device, or using wireless transmission.

“If we use wireless for each of these vital signs we would need many batteries,” says study co-author Sang-Hoon Lee of Korea University in Seoul. A network transmitting through the skin would cut energy needs by roughly 90 per cent, he says.

Future versions of the technology could be implanted beneath the skin for long-term monitoring purposes.

• Turning paper and clothing into batteries – By coating fabric and paper with ink “laced” with carbon nanotubes, researchers were able to coax these ordinary materials into storing energy that may one day be used to charge gadgets or lead to new, flexible displays.
• Exploring dolphins’ diabetes “off switch” – Dolphins have the ability to “switch off” insulin resistance, and researchers hope to probe the human genome to determine if humans might have the same ability.
• Scientists discuss geoengineering possibilities as solution for climate change – “If we can heat the planet, can we also cool it?”
• Advancements in cryonics – Chief Operating Officer of American Cryonics Society says, “For a little over $28,000, we can give you age suspension.”
• How nanotechnology could help the Middle East – A strong commitment to Arab scientists could mean nanotechnology advances in areas such as water treatment and solar energy.
• Software could understand what humans write – Emerging technologies being developed at Stanford could help computers better comprehend information online, leading to better indexing of information and effectiveness of search engines.

This recently unveiled bionic hand, manufactured by the UK-based BeBionic, shows a remarkable degree of accuracy – even enabling users to pull out precariously balanced blocks in a game of “Jenga.” The company shows a range of different grip types and capabilities in the above video.

According to Engadget, the hand can also be sheathed in remarkably life-like silicone “skin” that will be available in 19 different tones.

More information will presumably come this spring, when the hand is officially launched at Liepzig in May.

ABC’s Good Morning America has been running some interesting medical technology stories this week, but this one in particular caught my eye. An Israeli company demonstrated a powered exoskeleton called ReWalk that can be used to help wheelchair-bound individuals walk upright, even up stairs:

ReWalk is a lightweight device comprised of an upper body harness, backpack and full leg supports.

The supports have motorized hips and knees. Advance motion sensors placed in the shoulder and connected to a backpack computer detect subtle changes in gravity, telling the device when a step needs to be taken. Users control the movement of the leg supports with the help of crutches, so wearers must have the use of their upper bodies in order to control the device.

A battery pack provides three hours of continuous movement.

Being able to walk, especially for those who have lost the ability due to an accident or illness, must be an incredibly empowering feeling. Aside from the positive mental and emotional impact technology like this can provide, however, there’s a very practical aspect. Not everywhere is wheelchair friendly. The simple act of walking up a flight of stairs, for example, may restore access to places that are difficult or impossible to access in a chair.

In addition to restoring mobility to those who have lost it, we’ve seen similar technology used to enhance human ability to comfortably carry heavy loads on foot.

The Navy Times is looking at what the future holds for the wettest branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, and the sailor of 2030 could be far more enhanced than those of today, boasting surgeries and bionic implants that enable them to see in the dark or control devices through thought:

Surgical enhancements may be commonplace. In the 1990s, aviators began getting LASIK surgery to correct vision problems. In the future, special warfare troops may get surgery that improves their night vision.

Meanwhile, the way sailors use tomorrow’s technology may move beyond today’s joysticks, keyboards and computer screens, said Peter Singer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of “Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century.”

“That could be very simple. Take the vibrator on your cell phone: You don’t hear it — you feel it,” Singer said.

He also talked about advancements in neuroscience that allow the brain to control devices directly. Doctors have learned how to wire the brain to control computer cursors or even prosthetic limbs. In the future, a skullcap with sensors may allow a user to translate thoughts into actions and operations, Singer said.

(Via io9)

Two of the hot new toys for the 2009 Christmas season used simple electrodes to read brainwaves and translate them to movement of a plastic ball – depending on your level of concentration, the ball would move up or down. Of course this is a quick and dirty implementation of the technology, which can be used, for example, to provide paraplegics with the ability to control robots or give the deaf the ability to hear again via cochlear implants.

CNN examines the potential future uses of brain-computer interfaces, which include DARPA research into technology that would enable soldiers to communicate through thought alone:

DARPA, the Pentagon’s technology research division, is currently working on an initiative called “Silent Talk,” which would let soldiers on secret missions communicate with their thoughts alone. This stealth component is attractive, but naysayers fear that such soldiers could become manipulated for evil means.

Telepathy implants won’t replace Facebook and Twitter anytime soon, but that possibility is problematic as well.

“You can imagine communicating with your friends through the devices, and that opens up a lot of ethical issues,” Rao says. Would you want your friends and family to know everything you are thinking? Would little white lies become obsolete?

If it’s wrong to want to update Twitter and Facebook via a neuroprosthetic, then I don’t want to be right.

Rise of the Smartphone

While people have had access to smartphones for some time, 2009 saw an explosion in the popularity and level of adoption of these devices as nearly every mobile carrier focused on promoting these phones and their accompanying unlimited data plans. While top-of-the-line smartphones used to cost hundreds of dollars, these devices can be found at very affordable price points today, and the creation of “app stores” has given customers new ways to customize their mobile experience. Our smartphones now serve as our “exobrains” and enable us to store and access vast amounts of information, navigate unfamiliar areas and communicate with the world. In addition, improved processing power, always-on Internet connections, GPS capability and cameras have also led to practical and useful applications of augmented reality. That leads to…

Useful Augmented Reality

While there may have been demonstrations of AR prior to 2009, this was the year that finally got the technology into people’s hands and made it useful. Applications like Yelp and Google Goggles use the capabilities of the latest smartphones to access reviews of businesses around users and perform searches using pictures, not words. Marketers also discovered how AR could enhance their products, and we saw innovations like AR-enhanced baseball cards and toys that provide additional levels of interactivity.

Transhuman Films Hit the Festival Circuit

Like him or not, inventor and author Ray Kurzweil has been perhaps the most visible and prolific singularitarian/ transhumanist thinker, and has been a great influence on many, including yours truly. Kurzweil has raised awareness of radical longevity, the singularity, and the technologies that will bring them about, including nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and gene therapy. Given his influence, it is perhaps unsurprising that someone would create a film exploring his ideas. That happened this year with the unveiling of a Kurzweil biopic, Transcendent Man, on the festival circuit. Next year we’ll see the theatrical debut of The Singularity is Near, written by Kurzweil himself.

Progress in Advanced Prosthetics

For too long, progress in designing prosthetic limbs has been slow, forcing injured soldiers to rely on 50+ year old technology to replace missing limbs. Driven at least in part by the number of soldiers maimed in combat, development of advanced prosthetic limbs, especially arms and hands, saw massive progress in 2009. We’ve seen arms that, for the first time, approximate the use of the original limb they are trying to replace – complete with the ability to be controlled by the user’s mind and provide tactile feedback in lieu of actual touch. We’ve also seen prosthetic legs that arguably give disabled runners an advantage over their nondisabled competitors.

To be continued…