RoboMan Hugh Herr Demos His Bionics Limbs

<p>Dr. <keyword id="1939805" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hugh-Herr">Hugh Herr</keyword>'s work developing robotic prosthetics is transforming the disability industry. He shared a clip of one woman's reaction to his revolutionary product, BIOMs, at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/ignition-2013">Ignition 2013</a>. <strong>Click for sound.</strong></p>
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<p><em>Produced by Kamelia Angelova, Alana Kakoyiannis, and Justin Gmoser.</em></p>

What It's Like To Walk Using Bionic Legs For The First Time

<p>Dr. <keyword id="1939805" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hugh-Herr">Hugh Herr</keyword>, head of the Biomechatronics research group at the <a href="http://biomech.media.mit.edu/">MIT Media Lab</a>, gave us a demonstration of bionic legs at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/ignition-2013">Ignition 2013</a>. A double amputee himself, he shows how incredibly true to form these electronic foot and ankle prosthetics, called  BIOMs, are to human physiology.<strong> Click for sound.</strong></p>
<div style="display:none;" id="kalturavideoplaceholder">kalturavideoplaceholder</div>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Produced by Kamelia Angelova, Alana Kakoyiannis, and Justin Gmoser.</em></p>

MIT Professor Shows Us His Incredible Bionic Prosthetics That Move Like Real Legs

<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/game-changers/bionics"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/53d951406da8111a490cebdd-800-75/game-changers-headerbionicsslim.png" border="0" width="800" height="75" /></a></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53e4ef7969bedd0c48dbcf68-387-516/hugh%20herr%20biomechatronics-1.jpg" border="0" alt="hugh herr biomechatronics 1"><p class="source"><span>Wired Italy</span></p><p class="caption">Herr's work has appeared in Wired, The Economist, Discover, Nature, and multiple other publications. Above is a cover image from Italian Wired in which he appeared with sprinter Aimee Mullins.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>Before Hugh Herr was known for creating some of the world's most advanced prosthetic limbs, he was known as the kid on his way to becoming one of the best rock climbers in the world.</p>
<p>By age 8, "Hugh had scaled a face of the 11,627-foot Mount Temple in southern Alberta," <a href="http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2009/02/best-foot-forward-february/2/">Eric Adelson wrote in Boston Magazine</a>. Later, he began climbing without a rope, ascending tough climbing routes, some of which no adult had ever done before, according to Adelson. By the time he was a teenager, Herr was one of the top rock climbers on the East Coast, according to <a href="http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/climber-hugh-herr-honored-by-esquire-magazine">Rock and Ice</a> magazine.</p>
<p>In January 1982, Herr, then 17, and a friend, Jeff Batzer, age 20, set out to climb Mount Washington. What began as an ascent in reasonable weather suddenly transformed into a trudge through 100-mile-per-hour winds with an intense minus 110 Fahrenheit windchill, Adelson wrote.</p>
<p>Disorientation caught them, and after Herr took a fall in a river, the two were stranded on the "wilderness side of Mount Washington," Herr told Jothy Rosenberg in the show "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6_0nI5U-Qg">Who Says I Can't</a>."</p>
<p>"We survived by building snow caves and hugging each other to stay warm," he said.</p>
<p>Eventually, the cold took over. "When you're hypothermic, one cannot think clearly. So even though we were approaching four days, we thought we were still in the same 24-hour day," Herr told Rosenberg.</p>
<p>Hypothermia gave way to surrender. "We were no longer able to walk. We just gave up all hope and we actually stopped hugging each other to stay warm," Herr told Rosenberg. "We just reasoned the sooner we die, the better," he said.</p>
<p>They were eventually discovered by a snowshoer, and that evening they were airlifted to a hospital. Weeks later, Herr lost his legs to frostbite. While the loss of a limb was traumatic, Herr was more upset by the death of a volunteer lost in an avalanche while looking for the boys. Herr said: "That information, along with the whole trauma of the ordeal, was very, very difficult to deal with."</p>
<p>"That was the No. 1  thing that got him to be so passionate about making a difference," his sister told Rosenberg.</p>
<h2 class="p1">14 Below</h2>
<p>Herr woke up after surgery 14 pounds lighter, missing everything below both knees, Adelson wrote. "A nurse told me that I would be able to walk with these things called artificial legs," Herr said in a clip from the documentary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkw_OJ2nto4">Ascent</a>.</p>
<p>Walk, not climb, they said.</p>
<p>He was given crude plaster of Paris legs and eventually acrylic ones, Adelson wrote.</p>
<p>"They were far more rudimentary than I had hoped they would be," Herr told <a href="http://vimeo.com/74104041">REEL Entrepreneurs</a>. "I basically said, 'This is it? Are you kidding me?'"</p>
<p>Despite doctor's orders, he took to local mountains. Adelson wrote:</p>
<blockquote class="blockquote">He made rock cliffs his first lab, chiseling and whittling his limbs right there in the woods and on the rock face as he went. He noticed his body got colder and achier as he climbed but his legs did not. He was able to move faster and higher than before, in part because the amputations had left him 14 pounds lighter. And up there on the mountain that day, Herr made a leap that changed his life and may someday change yours: Why can't fake limbs outperform real ones?</blockquote>
<p>Herr realized that there was no reason that his new feet needed to mimic his old ones. He could cut off a heel to reduce weight, increase his legs' stiffness where it was useful, add spikes for ice climbing, or make feet narrow enough to stick in small cracks.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53ea394aecad04817b0b3929/hugh herr climbing .gif" border="0" alt="hugh herr climbing "><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/hugh_herr_the_new_bionics_that_let_us_run_climb_and_dance#t-195135">TED</a></span></p><p class="caption">One iteration of Herr's climbing prosthetics.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>"My climbing colleagues first labeled me as 'courageous,' which is always very demeaning," Herr said.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53e4efdd6da811db1bc7f9b3-441-600/149263_11039_l-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Hugh Herr"><p class="source"><span>Outside Magazine</span></p><p class="caption">After the accident Hugh Herr again blew the climbing world away, even making it on the cover of Outside Magazine.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>After a year, Herr's climbing was "better than ever," according to Rosenberg.</p>
<p>"I began ascending rock faces that I actually could not have ascended before the accident with biological legs," he said in Ascent.</p>
<p>Herr was good, but many thought he was too good. "The second I became competitive, I became a threat," Herr told Rosenberg. "I had a few people threaten to amputate their own limbs to achieve the same advantage," he said.</p>
<p>He couldn't stop laughing. "It was music to my ears," he said.</p>
<h2>Re-Education</h2>
<p>Herr was always an intensely curious child. He could sit for hours staring into space, rocking back and forth, just thinking, he told Boston Magazine. "I had an intense ability to hold a thought," he said.</p>
<p>Still, he had never been "much of a student" in high school, according to Rosenberg.</p>
<p>"My goal prior to the accident was to be the best mountain climber in the world. I had no interest in even going to college," Herr told REEL Entrepreneurs.</p>
<p>After the success with his artificial climbing limbs, Herr decided to attend college where he enrolled in math and <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> courses. He was on a mission, he told Rosenberg, "to advance technology not only for myself, but for everyone."</p>
<p>In college Herr had his "intellectual birth," falling in love with physics, he told Boston Magazine. He eventually began working with a local prosthesist in effort to improve how prosthetic legs attached to their wearers, Adelson wrote.</p>
<p>Herr went on to get his Master's in mechanical engineering from MIT, a PhD in biophysics from Harvard, and then a postdoc back at MIT.</p>
<h2 class="p1">Extreme Bionics</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53cfef556bb3f71d67da790b-1200-858/rtr3lnzy.jpg" border="0" alt="Hugh Herr"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Brian Snyder </span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Today, Herr is the director of biomechatronics at MIT, where he established the Center For Extreme Bionics, which concentrates on lower body prosthetics like knees, ankles, and hips.</p>
<p>"The mission of the center is to put forth fundamental science and technological capability that will allow the biomechatronic and regenerative repair of humans across a broad range of brain and body disabilities," Herr said at the <a href="h_herr_the_new_bionics_that_let_us_run_climb_and_dance/transcript#t-717161">most recent TED conference</a>.</p>
<p>At that conference he gave "the first demonstration of a running gait under neural command," showing off a pair of <a href="http://www.biom.com">BiOM</a> prosthetics. The prosthetics have the ability to interact with both the body and the surrounding environment in, perhaps, the most natural way yet.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53e3c4fa6bb3f7e156dd5fcf/herr3.gif" border="0" alt="Herr3"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/hugh_herr_the_new_bionics_that_let_us_run_climb_and_dance#t-608137">GIF from TED: "Hugh Herr: The new bionics that let us run, climb and dance"</a></span></p><p class="caption">Hugh Herr at TED 2014 showing off his running gait.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>The center also designs <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hugh-herr-robotic-exoskeleton-boots-2014-5">products that improve movement</a> of those with biological limbs including "the first exoskeleton in history that actually augments human walking," which you can see below. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hugh-herr-robotic-exoskeleton-boots-2014-5">The skeleton</a> so severely reduces energy use that "when a normal, healthy person wears the device for 40 minutes and then takes it off, their own biological legs feel ridiculously heavy and awkward," he said at the TED conference.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53e3c3ceeab8eae929dd5fcf/herr2.gif" border="0" alt="Herr2"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/hugh_herr_the_new_bionics_that_let_us_run_climb_and_dance#t-608137">GIF from TED: "Hugh Herr: The new bionics that let us run, climb and dance"</a></span></p><p class="caption">The first exoskeleton in history that actually augments human walking.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>But Herr and his team are far from finished. "We want to go a step further," he said. They want to completely close the loop between man and machine so that those missing limbs "will not only have synthetic limbs that move like flesh and bone, but actually feel like flesh and bone."</p>
<p>Today, they continue to push the boundaries of what prosthetics can do.</p>
<p>"We the people need not accept our limitations, but can transcend disability through technological innovation," Herr said at TED. "Indeed, through fundamental advances in bionics in this century, we will set the technological foundation for an enhanced human experience, and we will end disability."</p>

Hugh Herr Is A Leading Bionics Researcher - But The Story That Got Him There Is Tragic

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55afdb122acae732118b8c26-492-369/hugh herr image.jpg" alt="Hugh Herr image" data-mce-source="Sports Illustrated/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Hugh Herr, MIT Media Lab" /><p class="source"><span>Sports Illustrated/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Hugh Herr, MIT Media Lab</p></div><p></p></div></div>Engineers have a world of creation at their fingertips: If they can dream it, they can build it (<keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> permitting).</p><p>We recently published a list of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/50-scientists-changing-the-world-2015-7">50 groundbreaking scientists who are changing the way we see the world</a>, and several of the scientists who made that list specialize in tech and engineering. </p><p>?Whether they're creating smart prosthetic limbs or innovative new medical devices, these 8 engineers are changing the landscape of the science industry.?</p>

The 8 most innovative scientists in tech and engineering

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/521e6e2a6bb3f7815f7fc554-489-366/hugh-herr-image.jpg?maxX=620" border="0" alt="Hugh Herr image" width="620" style="float: right;" /><p class="source">Sports Illustrated/Getty Images</p><p class="caption">Hugh Herr</p></div><p></p></div><a href="http://www.media.mit.edu/people/hherr" target="_blank">Hugh Herr</a> has been called the "Leader of the Bionic Age" because of his revolutionary work in the emerging field of "biomechatronics" - technology that marries human physiology with electromechanics. A double amputee himself, Herr has made breakthrough advances in bionic limbs that provide greater mobility and new hope to those with physical disabilities.</p>
<p>Herr's research at the <a href="http://www.media.mit.edu/people/hherr" target="_blank">MIT Media Lab</a> in Boston has led to the development of space-age-sounding computer-controlled artificial knees and more that have won numerous awards and worldwide recognition.</p>
<p>We're thrilled that Dr. Herr will be giving a TED-style talk at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/event/ignition-2013">IGNITION: Future of Digital</a>, Business Insider's flagship <keyword id="5555" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="conference">conference</keyword>, being held this year at New York's Time Warner Center November 11-13.</p>
<p>We'll also explore how technology is changing how we dress (wearables), manage our households (Internet of things), and spend money (bitcoin). IGNITION is NYC's premier digital conference and you don't want to miss it.</p>
<p>Join us to hear from:</p>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> Dan Roth, </strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Linkedin</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss</span></strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, <span>Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust</span></span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Fred Wilson</strong>, Union Square Ventures</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Ken Lerer, </strong> Lerer Ventures</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Nick Denton</strong>, Gawker Media</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Michael Lazerow</strong>, <span>Salesforce Marketing Cloud</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Shane Smith, </strong> VICE Media </li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Arianna Huffington,</strong> Huffington Post</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Russell Simmons, </strong> All Def Digital</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Irwin Gotlieb,</strong> GroupM</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;">and many more.</li>
</ul>
<p>For a preview of what you can expect in November, check out the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/event/ignition-2013/speakers">latest IGNITION 2013 line-up</a>. And <a href="http://businessinsider.ticketleap.com/ignition-2013/" target="_blank">reserve your spot</a> now!</p>
<p><a href="http://businessinsider.ticketleap.com/ignition-2013/"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4f4d349669bedd3d5600004c-287-50/events_button.gif" border="0" alt="register" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>
<p>P.S. If you're interested in sponsorship opportunities at IGNITION, contact <a href="mailto:events@businessinsider.com">events@businessinsider.com</a>.</p>
<p>Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/bi_events" target="_blank">@BI_Events</a> on Twitter for IGNITION updates.</p>

Bitcoin, Bionics, Wearables, Internet Of Things, And The Future Of Media All Coming To IGNITION

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/532caf2069bedd7d03f33da8-1200-858/haslet-davis-ted-1.jpg?maxX=1200" border="0" alt="Haslet-Davis Ted 2014" width="1200" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tedconference/13275551705/">Photo: Ryan Lash / Flickr</a></span></p><p class="caption">Adrianne Haslet-Davis and Christian Lightner dance at TED 2014</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>Ballroom dancer Adrianne Haslet-Davis lost her leg on April 15, 2013, when two pressure cooker bombs were detonated at the Boston Marathon.</p>
<p>Less than a year later, she danced a rumba to the Enrique Iglesias song "Ring My Bells" onstage for the attendees of TED 2014 in Vancouver on Wednesday, twirling around and being dipped by partner Christian Lightner. It was her first performance since the tragedy.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/532caf8369bedd3611f33da3-1200-858/haslet-davis-ted-2.jpg" border="0" alt="Haslet-Davis TED 2014" width="1200" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tedconference/13275549145/">Photo: Ryan Lash / Flickr</a></span></p><p class="caption">This was the first public performance for Haslet-Davis since the Boston bombings.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>The dance was a spectacular surprise ending for Hugh Herr's TED talk, which demonstrated amazing developments in prosthetics.</p>
<p>Herr heads the <a href="http://biomech.media.mit.edu/#/" target="_blank">Biomechatronics Group at the MIT Media Lab</a>, where he and his team create bionic limbs that replicate and can even improve on natural human performance.</p>
<p>He's also the founder of a company called BiOM that designs prosthetics that they call "personal bionics," which are tailor-made to fit specific individuals. And he is no stranger to the challenges that amputees face.</p>
<p>In 1982, Herr suffered an accident while mountain climbing that plunged his legs through ice into a frozen river. Both legs had to be amputated below the knee due to frostbite-caused tissue damage. Now, he wears two BiOM prosthetic limbs of his own - and has others that he's designed specifically for rock climbing.</p>
<p>After the Boston bombings, Herr met with Haslet-Davis. He and his team decided to try and create a prosthetic limb that would allow her to not only walk, but to dance.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/532caff169bedd5d11f33da6-1200-858/haslet-davis-ted-3.jpg" border="0" alt="Haslet-Davis TED 2014" width="1200" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tedconference/13275692313/">Photo: Ryan Lash / Flickr</a></span></p><p class="caption">The prosthetic allows her to move naturally.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>"Our humanity can be embedded into biomechanics," said Herr.</p>
<p>The MIT team studied the mechanics of dance, looking at the way dancers move and trying to understand the forces they applied on the dance floor.</p>
<p>The team constructs prosthetics that mimic what Herr calls the "mechanical" attachment of normal limbs. To make the prosthetics more comfortable for the wearer, they use materials that can become stiffer or more relaxed, allowing the "skin" of the prosthetic to adapt to harder or softer parts of the body it's attached to.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/532cb07f6da811677df33da3-1200-858/haslet-davis-ted-5.jpg" border="0" alt="Haslet-Davis TED 2014" width="1200" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tedconference/13275691083/">Photo: Ryan Lash / Flickr</a></span></p><p class="caption">Haslet-Davis twirled around partner Christian Lightner throughout the performance.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>Dynamic movement systems allow the prosthetics to move like flesh and bone, adding force when stepping up and increasing resistance when landing. And electrodes connect the artificial limb to the nervous system, so the communication between brain and limb functions normally.</p>
<p>Herr said that after he suffered his accident, he realized that despite his legs not functioning, "humanity can never be broken." The problem, he decided, lay with the fact that technology wasn't yet able to make up for his loss - but that was a problem that could be solved.</p>
<p>Creating a new limb for Haslet-Davis took 200 days.</p>
<p>And the result was incredible.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/532cb0ee6da8116e78f33dab-1200-858/haslet-davis-ted-4.jpg" border="0" alt="Haslet-Davis TED 2014" width="1200" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tedconference/13275692983/">Photo: Ryan Lash / Flickr</a></span></p><p class="caption">Amazing.</p></div><p></p></div></p>

A Boston Bombing Survivor Dances Onstage For The First Time Since Losing Her Leg [PICS]

<p><div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/521e6e2a6bb3f7815f7fc554-489-366/hugh-herr-image.jpg?maxX=620" border="0" alt="Hugh Herr image" width="620" style="float: right;" /><p class="source">Sports Illustrated/Getty Images</p><p class="caption">Hugh Herr</p></div></div><a href="http://www.media.mit.edu/people/hherr" target="_blank">Hugh Herr</a> has been called the “Leader of the Bionic Age” because of his revolutionary work in the emerging field of "biomechatronics" — technology that marries human physiology with electromechanics. A double amputee himself, Herr has made breakthrough advances in bionic limbs that provide greater mobility and new hope to those with physical disabilities.</p>
<p>Herr's research at the <a href="http://www.media.mit.edu/people/hherr" target="_blank">MIT Media Lab</a> in Boston has led to the development of space-age-sounding computer-controlled artificial knees and more that have won numerous awards and worldwide recognition.</p>
<p>We’re thrilled that Dr. Herr will be giving a TED-style talk at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/event/ignition-2013">IGNITION: Future of Digital</a>, Business Insider's flagship <keyword id="5555" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="conference">conference</keyword>, being held this year at New York’s Time Warner Center November 11-13.</p>
<p>We'll also explore how technology is changing how we dress (wearables), manage our households (internet of things), and invent new products (3D printing). IGNITION is NYC's premier digital conference and you don't want to miss it.</p>
<p>Join us to hear from:</p>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> Dan Roth, </strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Linkedin</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Fred Wilson</strong>, Union Square Ventures</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Ken Lerer, </strong> Lerer Ventures</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Nick Denton</strong>, Gawker Media</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Michael Lazerow</strong>, <span>Salesforce Marketing Cloud</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Shane Smith, </strong> VICE Media </li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Arianna Huffington,</strong> Huffington Post</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Russell Simmons, </strong> All Def Digital</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;"><strong>Rob Norman,</strong> GroupM</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0em;">and many more.</li>
</ul>
<p>For a preview of what you can expect in November, check out the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/event/ignition-2013/speakers">latest IGNITION 2013 line-up</a>. And <a href="http://businessinsider.ticketleap.com/ignition-2013/" target="_blank">reserve your spot</a> now before early-bird rates expire!</p>
<p><a href="http://businessinsider.ticketleap.com/ignition-2013/"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4f4d349669bedd3d5600004c-287-50/events_button.gif" border="0" alt="register" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>
<p>P.S. If you're interested in sponsorship opportunities at IGNITION, contact <a href="mailto:events@businessinsider.com">events@businessinsider.com</a>.</p>
<p>Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/bi_events" target="_blank">@BI_Events</a> on Twitter for IGNITION updates.</p>

Bionics, Wearables, Internet Of Things, And 3D Printing Coming To IGNITION

<p>These boots were made for walking (more effectively).</p>
<p>A new exoskeleton boot developed by Hugh Herr and his team at the MIT Media Lab could make walking a less tiring process, whether it's for a long day of city strolling, for soldiers covering harsh terrain by foot, or for helping people relearn how to walk during physical therapy. It's described in a <a href="http://www.jneuroengrehab.com/content/11/1/80/">paper in the latest issue of the </a> <a href="http://www.jneuroengrehab.com/content/11/1/80/">Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation</a>.</p>
<p>The device consists of little more than fiberglass struts attached to boots. Small motors alternately tension and release the struts in time with your walking pace, effectively multiplying the work you put into moving. This means it takes less energy to walk, even when you are carrying extra weight.</p>
<p>Here's what it looks like in action:</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/536a3ec169beddb278d1b084/may 07, 2014 10:09.gif" border="0" alt="May 07, 2014 10:09" /><p class="source"><span>Screenshot</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>The researchers had test subjects walk on a treadmill while wearing a 50-pound weighted vest. Researchers recorded how much oxygen the subjects inhaled and how much carbon dioxide they exhaled in order to establish a metabolic rate, a measure of the energy the person used to move while wearing the vest.</p>
<p>Then the experiment was repeated with the subjects wearing both the vest and the exoskeleton, and the results showed that the exoskeleton drastically reduced the energy required to walk while carrying a load. The 50-pound vest actually felt like 35 pounds when subjects were wearing the boots, because they bore 30% of the load.</p>
<p>"This is the first exoskeleton that actually augments human walking and significantly reduces metabolic cost," Herr said in a press release. "Subjects noticed that their legs felt heavier and awkward when they took the exoskeleton off."</p>
<p>This means that the exoskeleton can make it easier to carry things you already carry, or it can enable you to carry heavier things using the same amount of energy. </p>
<p>The exoskeleton detects when to jump into action - you just need to walk normally in order to get its benefits. If you stand still, there is tension between the struts and the motor worn below the knee. Take a step and the motor pulls the top of the struts forward. This torques the bottom outward, and as the bottom is fixed to the boots, that's where you get the benefit of the device's assistance.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/536a5aceeab8ea3924187ab2-789-507/untitled-152.png" border="0" alt="exoskeleton diagram" /><p class="source"><span>Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>

These Boots Make Walking Easy Even When Carrying Heavy Loads

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5446ca816da811ea397a1b6f-600-338/francis_halzen.jpg" border="0" alt="francis_halzen"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://news.ls.wisc.edu/announcements/halzen-receives-2014-american-ingenuity-award/">Photo courtesy El Pais/Bernardo Perez and University of Wisconsin-Madison</a></span></p><p class="caption">Francis Halzen, Gregory Breit Professor and Hilldale Professor of Physics at UW-Madison and the principal investigator of IceCube. </p></img></div><p></p></div></div>In order to catch something very small, sometimes you have to build something very big.</p>
<p>When Francis Halzen wanted to study neutrinos - tiny, subatomic particles that fly through just about everything including you and me - he conceived of something colossal.</p>
<p>"Our idea was to use a block of ice, a kilometer in size, that is a mile deep under the geographic South Pole," Halzen, who is a physicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in a <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-one-physicists-pursuit-cosmos-took-antarctica-180953048/">Smithsonian Magazine</a> video for the <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/2014-smithsonian-american-ingenuity-award-winners-180953057/?no-ist">American Ingenuity Awards</a>.</p>
<p>The result was the largest particle physics detector ever built located in some of the harshest most inhospitable conditions on Earth: Antarctica.</p>
<p>For his pioneering efforts that led toward the construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in operation today, Smithsonian Magazine honored Halzen on Oct. 16 with the 2014 <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/2014-smithsonian-american-ingenuity-award-winners-180953057/">American Ingenuity Award</a> in the physical sciences, presented by Stephen Hawking.</p>
<p>Halzen's brain-child, IceCube, has been fully functional since 2010, but it was a long road - more than 20 years -to get there.</p>
<p>The IceCube Neutrino Observatory consists of dozens of holes drilled deep into the Antarctic ice. Scientists then lower neutrino-detecting sensors into the holes. Below is an image of one of the holes:</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54481b0d6bb3f79104493874-1200-924/5909523275_06177fbec2_o.jpg" border="0" alt="icecube hole"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/alan_light/5909523275/in/photolist-a1cRQV-a1cRok-n1eCob">Alan Light</a></span></p><p class="caption">One of the holes drilled into the Antarctic ice that contains sensitive neutrino-detecting sensors.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/evidence-of-neutrinos-outside-the-solar-system-found-at-the-icecube-detector-2013-11">In 2013, his work paid off.</a> IceCube discovered what Holzen had set out to find: a specific type of high-energy neutrino, called cosmic neutrinos. These neutrinos come from powerful celestial events like black holes, the active cores of certain galaxies, and massive stellar explosions called supernovae. They were the highest-energy neutrinos ever observed and the first cosmic neutrinos ever detected.</p>
<p><img class="full src=" border="0" alt="physics world breakthrough neutrinos icecube">The discovery was a breakthrough for the field of astronomy because neutrinos offer astronomers a unique look at what's happening at the core of many powerful cosmic sources.</img></p>
<p>Before IceCube's revolutionary find, astronomers had only radiation, in the form of visible light, x-rays, gamma rays, and more, with which to investigate the universe. Now, they have particles, too, in the form of neutrinos.</p>
<p>Neutrinos are a byproduct of nuclear fusion, so studying them allows scientists to observe the high-energy physical processes happening inside black holes, active galaxies, and supernovae. The details of how these sources form and evolve over time is still being understood and is an active field of research.</p>
<p>"I love to learn," Halzen told <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-one-physicists-pursuit-cosmos-took-antarctica-180953048/">Smithsonian Magazine</a>. "Just understanding things that you thought you could never understand, that is the great pleasure of doing physics."</p>
<p>Check out the video below in which Holzen talks about how this monumental, game-changing project came about, how it works, and what makes IceCube so unique.</p>
<script height="452px" width="804px" src="http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#pbid=MGQxZGQ1N2VlMDRjNGJmNmFmN2QwY2U2&amp;ec=0xbjQ1cTokljQ5K-rlU_vnHWozCGDXW8" type="text/javascript"></script>
<p><br>Each year, Smithsonian recognizes ten of the most innovative people in America. Some of this year's honorees include: <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/future-robotic-legs-180953040/">Hugh Herr</a> was awarded most innovative in technology for his work in developing bionic limbs.<a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/when-dazzling-art-transforms-cityscape-180953043/">Janet Echelman</a> won in visual arts for her inspirational sky-high sculptures. And <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/meet-two-scientists-who-implanted-false-memory-mouse-180953045/">Steve Ramirez and Xu Liu</a> won in natural sciences for their work on how memories can form and be edited.</br></p>

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