Medical devices

Neuralink developed a brain-computer device that is implanted into the brain and allows paralyzed patients to control computers and even smartphones with their minds. To date, seven patients have received the device, called Telepathy, which is in clinical trials. The first participant received their implant in January 2024. Neuralink works by placing electrodes near neurons…

A Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) team has built a myoelectric prosthetic hand that keeps weight down by driving the thumb’s two degrees of freedom: flex/extend and adduct/abduct. One small actuator enables that functionality while a linkage-wire hybrid system gives the fingers both firm pinch strength and shape-adaptive grip. This single-actuator control for…

Twin Cities–based medical-device design firm Kablooe Design will get its first new chief executive in 34 years this summer. Founder Tom KraMer will step aside on August 17, and move into a strategic-account role. His successor, Fred Sklenar, is a 37-year product-development veteran who joined Kablooe after running his own consultancy and teaching design-for-manufacturing courses.…

Brad Smith, a man rendered mute by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is talking again after surgeons embedded a coin-size Neuralink “Link” with 1,024 electrodes in his motor cortex, allowing him to steer a cursor and trigger AI-generated speech using pure thought.​ Smith is the first person with ALS, and the third human overall, to receive the…

The continents of Europe, Asia, and the Americas are widely recognized as sources of innovation, but Africa is less known for its R&D efforts. Yet, despite certain economic challenges, Africa is beginning to take its place on the world stage for invention. Recent patenting activity can identify the seeds of such nascent creativity.  Patent protection…

Imagine walking into a clinic after a doctor referred you to get your liver checked out. After walking down the hall of the hospital’s radiology wing, you enter a room with a robotic ultrasound system. An employee from the hospital greets you and has you lie on a table. She then states to the machine:…

Rodney Gorham can’t move his body or speak, but with a single thought, he commands his world. Five years after receiving a brain implant from Synchron, this Australian in his mid-60s, paralyzed by ALS, can feed his dog, adjust lights, and turn fans off and on in his house. Rodney’s setup looks deceptively simple: a…