Olde Hornet
Well-Known Member
http://www.alasu.edu/news/news-details/index.aspx?nid=2470
Few people would voluntarily place themselves in the predicament described in this precarious scene, but they soon will be lining up to do so in the Biomechanics and Motor Control Laboratory (BMCL) at Alabama State University, which now boasts one of the world’s most advanced devices for the study of human motion. So advanced, in fact, it is one of only six in North America.
Dr. Lee Childers, BMCL director, with the help of an international crew, has successfully installed the machine known as a Gait Realtime Interactive Analysis Lab, or GRAIL. What Childers learns in this virtual reality setup will improve prosthetic design and rehabilitation, stabilize the legs of stroke victims and give combat soldiers a leg up on the field of battle.
The device, which looks like a cross between a huge video game and a sound stage, was developed by an Amsterdam company called Motek Medical B.V., and it was paid for by a nearly $500,000 grant from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland. It is as complicated as the space-time continuum and as simple as taking a walk.
“We’re going to use it to improve people’s lives,” Childers says.
Few people would voluntarily place themselves in the predicament described in this precarious scene, but they soon will be lining up to do so in the Biomechanics and Motor Control Laboratory (BMCL) at Alabama State University, which now boasts one of the world’s most advanced devices for the study of human motion. So advanced, in fact, it is one of only six in North America.
The device, which looks like a cross between a huge video game and a sound stage, was developed by an Amsterdam company called Motek Medical B.V., and it was paid for by a nearly $500,000 grant from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland. It is as complicated as the space-time continuum and as simple as taking a walk.
“We’re going to use it to improve people’s lives,” Childers says.
