The convenience of never having to recharge a manually-powered wheelchair is often outweighed by the fact that riders must use both arms to steer it. Carrying something like a smartphone at the same time is a big challenge, so a Swiss design student was inspired to design a better wheelchair that allows riders to…
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that sitting for long periods of time is bad for us. But new research suggests it’s not just the total amount of time we spend sitting each day that we need to worry about, it’s also the length of time between bouts of physical activity. While still incomplete, these results suggest a…
Most electric wheelchairs and mobility devices can easily shrug off a little rain, but on the whole, they really don’t mix well with water. So engineers at the University of Pittsburgh designed a powered wheelchair that runs on compressed air, allowing those with limited mobility to safely enjoy a day at the water…
There’s not much info aside from “we promise it’s coming,” but Vespa has finally revealed it’s making an electric version of its iconic scooter.
When the RoChair first appeared back in 2011, the wheelchair used an unorthodox center-mounted drive lever, operated with a rowing motion, to propel it forwards. Four years later the RoChair has been completely redesigned to look more traditional, until you see someone operating it.
When your town is continually threatened by floods or your village’s fields become too dry to grow crops, there are two options: move on, or stick around and try to make things work. At the Paris climate talks, there’s a swell of opinion to encourage the latter.
Three-year-old Tanner Jensen and his 20-month-old brother Skyler were both born with a rare genetic condition known as Spinal Muscular Atrophy which means they can’t walk, crawl, control their heads, or even lift their arms. But life for the young brothers will soon be improving thanks to students at Brigham Young…
The self-driving car is still a little way off hitting the mainstream, but when it does it could change the way we travel around our cities. Certainly design consultancy IDEO thinks so, if these concepts are anything to go by.
The world's already got its fair share of tank-treaded wheelchairs that can traverse any terrain, but a personal mobility device that looks as fun to ride as an ATV? There's definitely still room for the HexHog in our hearts, on our hilly fields and mountains, and even in shallow water, apparently.
Trolleys and light rail trains are great for getting around a city and all, but let's face it, they're just sitting there empty a lot of the time, just begging you to trip over them. So why not turn that underused resource into a new form of mobility: A DIY pallet-train for one?
If you've ever held a little kid's hands while they stood and your feet and walked along with you, then you already understand the inspiration behind Debby Elnatan's Upsee—a harness that allows special needs children to finally walk with the help of an adult.
Their design is mostly functional as is, but until now no one has really stopped to ask if the handles on the back of a wheelchair could be improved. It turns out the answer is yes—an emphatic yes, in fact—given how useful these ergonomic alternatives appear to be.
When I meet Josh Westerhold at the offices of Project 100, the Las Vegas urban mobility startup that's funded by the Downtown Project, we decide it would probably make sense to head out into downtown Vegas to tour their project area in person. From the other room, his co-worker has an even better idea: "Take the…
The economy may be mired in an existential crisis, but there's one place where the money is flowing: into those fun apps on your phone. As I discovered at a "casual mobile entertainment sector" conference last month, Portland isn’t the only place where the dream of the 90s lives on.
Honda has been demoing its sitting Segways for years now, but the Hammacher Schlemmer version has one crucial advantage over them: it's actually for sale. So instead of just being tantalized by a future where legs are an unnecessary human feature, we're now officially living it.
Sometimes dragging yourself out of bed can feel like the greatest challenge mankind has ever faced. But because of work, school, chores, or disapproving spouses, you get up anyways. However, what if there was a way to be lazy while still being productive? Surely it would change lives for the better, right?
Not surprisingly, those fancy electric wheelchairs that let people with limited mobility cruise about with the push of a joystick are incredibly expensive. So adapting technology that powers modern electric bikes, Yamaha's JWX-2 electric assist gives that same mobility for less—and can be retrofitted to almost any…
Researchers at the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan have come up with a four-legged wheelchair design that lets the mobility device tackle steps and other obstacles that it simply couldn't with just four wheels. And it keeps its passenger level and perfectly safe when it's tip-toeing over uneven terrain.
It's not going to get you anywhere in a hurry, but Simon Burfield's joystick-controlled electric wheelchair is built from the ground up using just Lego. What's even more impressive is that the chair can carry someone up to 200 pounds in weight, as long as there aren't any obstacles for it to traverse.
The young man in this video looks like he's riding a Segway. But Yusuf Akturkoglu was paralized after falling from a horse five years ago, and he's being mobilized by an amazing device invented by Turkish scientists. It's going to change lives.
