Paraplegic's post-college gig: Testing bionic legs - CNET
Summary
The 22-year-old paraplegic, who captured headlines recently when he walked across the stage at his commencement wearing bionic legs, now spends long days with the engineers who developed the customized robotic suit. A typical day involves two tests of Whitney in the suit, followed by discussions aimed at helping the engineers improve everything from the comfort of the straps to the machines ease of control. But exoskeletons can help users improve their respiratory and circulatory systems and avert some of the health problems related to immobility, not to mention give them the gift of step again. Whitney sees others like him using such a device regularly only if the price of the machines drop (New Zealand Paralympian Dave MacCalman recently spent $150,000 to become the first person to buy a commercially available pair of Rex legs). If Whitney had a wish list for the next-generation exoskeleton hed make it a master stair climber and would want to know the system is stable enough that he wouldnt have to worry about falling flat on his face if there were a computer glitch.
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