Help with long-term disabilities
The world’s first full-body haptic feedback, motion capture thermo-controlled suit, Teslasuit, originally developed for gamers, is now being tested for use in rehabilitating patients with long-term disabilities.
Developed by UK firm VR Electronics, the Teslasuit can deliver a wide range of sensations across the whole body, from the soft touch of warm rain, to a heavy impact and even freezing cold. The Teslasuit’s haptic library provides a range of sensations to targeted areas across the body, including simultaneously stimulating multiple muscle groups.
Muscle stimulation aids rehabilitation
It is this functionality that makes it potentially applicable to healthcare, and now tests are being carried out to assess this. The suit can be programmed to give those with physical disabilities muscle stimulation. This will allow them to exercise limbs which would otherwise require specialist help. By stimulating limbs with the suit, it stops the muscles from wasting.
Virtual reality has been used in the past in the area of rehabilitation, with studies demonstrating that people with chronic pain conditions can experience pain relief through being immersed into a virtual reality world.
Teslasuit chief project executive, Dimitri Mikhalchuk, said “… we developed it to the point where it became a viable product for rehabilitation.”
Innovative and market-leading
The Teslasuit will be on show at the forthcoming ‘Future Tech Now’ show in London, running from April 5 – 7. With the suit set to go into full production later this year, we at Cyclone will be monitoring it closely to see if it can add to our expanding FES product portfolio.
Stuart Dunne, Cyclone’s managing director said, “This is precisely the type of innovative and market-leading solution that we are always looking to offer our customers. I will be interested to see how well it works out in tests and if it can help to improve rehabilitation.”
To read more about the Teslasuit, click here.
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