New Generation of Iran-Made Carbon Running Blades Help Amputees, Disabled People
“Carbon-based blades are a replacement for an amputated joint, meaning that a person who has lost legs can have these carbon blades to simulate the function of the leg joint,” said Hamidreza Maqareh Abed, the managing director of the knowledge-based company.
“We are the first manufacturers of sports prosthetics in Asia and the fourth manufacturer in the world. We have achieved the technical know-how of carbon blades that give a person the power to run,” he added.
Maqareh Abed noted that conventional blades face the challenge of being heavy and inflexible, but these challenges have been overcome in carbon blades, adding, “This product has successfully obtained the European Union CE and also the Iranian medical device approval, and we are one of the main suppliers of carbon claws in Iran and other countries.”
In a relevant development in March, Iranian researchers at the Department of Physics and Medical Engineering of Tehran University of Medical Sciences designed a flashing keyboard special to physically-disabled people for typing letters based on the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology.
“Thanks to the technological advances of the brain-computer interface (BCI) in recent decades, it has greatly helped the disabled people. In this system, the computer or robot does the job based on the information that comes from understanding what the disabled person wants,” Homayoun Jafari, the director of the Department of Physics and Medical Engineering of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, told ANA.
He explained that the BCI devices provide the possibility for humans to perform a task without the direct intervention of muscles and by using the signal of their brain, adding that they perform a specific action like controlling a prosthesis, typing letters, expressing meaning or controlling surrounding tools.
“In the past, most BCI devices worked based on low and medium frequency and had limitations, including user's eye fatigue, alpha signal rhythm interference, and causing epilepsy; however, in our research, a high-frequency system with new patterns was studied and a new system was designed with the ability to type letters on the screen with high visual frequency and without previous restrictions,” Jafari said.
“In this technology, a special design and light pattern is placed under each of the keyboard buttons, and the disabled person finds the desired letters by looking at them, and the word is written and seen on the screen,” he added.
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