6 ms·

Father's homemade machine helps disabled son to walk (video)

224 points by unfasten 15y ago

codingsolo 15y ago
It goes to show that a man's love knows no boundaries of current science and technology. Innovation driven by determination can change fates. One of the best dads ever.
- pwenzel 15y ago
  Agreed, this is absolutely awesome and inspiring.
- cyanbane 15y ago
  Agreed, THIS is hacking.
- goatforce5 15y ago
  Father of the year.
freejack 15y ago
My son has cerebral palsy and I can see the immediate benefit that a machine like this would bring to him. We are currently using a similar harness on a regular treadmill, but this therapy doesn't help him learn that he needs to raise his feet and move them in a circular motion forward and then set them down again - seeing how the machine handles this using the same idea as an elliptical trainer immediately opened my eyes to the deficiencies in the approach we're using in the modern clinic we're attending. I would love to be able to help fund the development and manufacture of these devices in some way.
- georgieporgie 15y ago
  For what it's worth, his machine looks a lot like an elliptical trainer found and most gyms these days.
  - jamesbressi 15y ago
    That was my first thought. I'm sure a few of us would pitch in and see if we can hack one of these together for freejack!
    - freejack 15y ago
      I'd love one :-) but there are tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of kids that could benefit from devices like these. I have no medical training, but the benefits seem obvious. Someone with some ambition would do well to track down the man that invented this and figure out a way to commercialize them. Physiotherapists are buying treadmills right now - I can't imagine that it would take much to validate these as a replacement.
  - freejack 15y ago
    I was thinking the same thing, but a regular trainer has a much longer range of motion than a child can take advantage of. His looked much more kid friendly. I'm going to relatives in a few weeks and they have an elliptical trainer - I'm going to try Rowan out on it, and it if looks helpful, modding one to get rid of the handles and building a tripod would seem pretty straightforward.
    - georgieporgie 15y ago
      It also seems to me that the distance between the feet is rather large on the ellipticals I've seen, at least for a child's hip width. I assume this is due to the large flywheel or fan used for resistance. I think the one in the video had a pretty narrow gap between the feet, probably at least partly due to a simple, narrow flywheel, since his isn't for resistance training. I immediately started thinking about how one could use 2x4's and plywood flywheels, along with some steel rods and clamps, to mock up an experimental elliptical machine for sizing. A more permanent version should be fairly easy to make with off-the-shelf components, and some welded steel stock. Interesting problem!
- esalazar 15y ago
  You can always use kickstarter.com to fund projects like this one.
  - steve_b 15y ago
    At the moment only US residents can create projects on Kickstarter. It's going to be awesome when they expand to other countries.
    - marquis 15y ago
      Someone could do it on his behalf, no?
      - esalazar 15y ago
        There is also indiegogo.com which I believe is available to anybody in the world.
    - ricardobeat 15y ago
      Most countries have their crowdfunding counterparts. There are two in Argentina: http://bananacash.com.ar http://bananacash.com.ar http://proyectanos.com http://proyectanos.com
  - Fargren 15y ago
    What would he offer to healthy backers?
- pdelgallego 15y ago
  This is the website of the "Estimulador de marcha" were you can find all the information about the project. You can also find the inventor email address, if you want to be in contact with him. http://www.estimuladordemarcha.com.ar/ http://www.estimuladordemarcha.com.ar/
  - freejack 15y ago
    Great find! Awesome. Thanks very much!!
miles_matthias 15y ago
This is the kind of entrepreneur I hope to be someday. A man on a mission, fixing something close to his heart. Just awesome.
davidedicillo 15y ago
I wish more hackers would invest their time and energies in this kind of projects. Inspiring.
- melling 15y ago
  I wish the HN readers would take on projects as a group. There are enough technical people that as a group would could actually accomplish a lot. I guess the trick is to find the right problems to crowdsource.
  - dman 15y ago
    Great idea.
  - ph0rque 15y ago
    I guess the trick is to find the right problems to crowdsource. Crowdsource that part, as well.
- wavephorm 15y ago
  But how do you convince a Silicon Valley venture capitalist to invest in something like this? If you say "we're building devices to help people walk" and some YC-funded group says "we're building a location-based restaurant recommendation app" who do you think is going to get millions in funding?
  - VladRussian 15y ago
    >But how do you convince a Silicon Valley venture capitalist to invest in something like this? If you say "we're building devices to help people walk" and some YC-funded group says "we're building a location-based restaurant recommendation app" who do you think is going to get millions in funding? while i'd share you sentiment at emotional level, at practical level lets be just toward the VCs. They don't have the scale of money to invest into "building devices to help people walk" - to reach the stage when it can be sold (ie. FDA approved, blah-blah-blah, and without that your device would just not be able to reach the majority of the people who would need the device) it would take not millions, at the best case scenario it would take high tens of millions. On the other side by financing "a location-based restaurant recommendation app" the VCs' millions help to generate super-wealth which can take on the next scale challenges - look at Musk for example. Unfortunately, there aren't many Musk-s around (honestly i don't undestand why whouldn't Brin or Page or Ellison do something like Musk, they even have much more money than he does (he is even not that super-wealthy, more on the lower side of the range))
nowarninglabel 15y ago
There is so much inspiration here.
StavrosK 15y ago
I have literally never seen a single video on that BBC site, on any of my machines. It just keeps loading. Is it just me?
- brador 15y ago
  Nope. Me too. I usually just search Youtube for the same headline and a video usually turns up. I don't know who the spammer is who does it, but I'm grateful.
- unfasten 15y ago
  I think there are 2 reasons videos from the BBC don't load. The first, which I'm almost certain stops the loading, is having your Flash privacy settings to never store any information. I have mine set to ask me when a new site wants to store information, but I can't set it to "No. Don't ask me again" on the BBC because if I do then the videos never load. I have to hit the "Deny" button when it prompts me, which it does, annoyingly, multiple times throughout a single video. The second possible reason could be blocking of ad servers, but I'm not sure about this one.
  - StavrosK 15y ago
    Ugh, what a stupid implementation. I'll give it a shot, thanks.
- jronkone 15y ago
  Me three.
maeon3 15y ago
Am I the only one who finds it disturbing that a mechanic was able to accomplish something that first world medical industry said couldn't be done? It just goes to show that if you have a disease, condition or injury, life threatening or not. It pays to self diagnose and be your own doctor. We can specialize more in our specific problem than an entire industry devoted to the body of all problems.
- meta 15y ago
  I think my key take-away would have been: the closer you are to the problem the better your solution can be. I would venture to guess current therapies were developed by health professions and engineers at arms length to intended patients (via books and maybe some user-testing in constrained environments). This solution was inspired and developed by a father who is involved with the health problem every day for long periods of time in real world situations. That provided a much better view of the problem space. I am not sure if self diagnosing is a great idea or what I would identify as a key take-away. But accepting solutions blindly could be.
  - hansy 15y ago
    Indeed...it's really difficult (in time measures) for doctors or physicians to reach a level of familiarity with the patient on par with the relationship the patient has with his/her family, friends, etc. This inability to do so often leads to oversights. True story. My ex-gf started experiencing cardiac arrests in college, which is rare for individuals of her age. Of course, her parents took her to some of the top physicians in the U.S. as well as in London and they all claimed she needed a very risky surgery for her heart. The arrests were scarring her heart tissue and any new arrest could permanently damage the organ further. The doctors knew that she would experience these arrests when she became extremely emotional or stressed out, yet couldn't pinpoint exactly what the problem was. They simply thought she had an unnaturally fast heartbeat, which led to the arrests. As her bf, I had taken her on amazing dates and watched horror movies with her, so I knew that I had put her through various emotional stages (complete with crazy fast hearbeats) without her ever experiencing an arrest. Luckily at the time, I was studying Endocrinology in college, so I proposed that there might be particular hormones in her system that weren't being flushed out of her body...which is very dangerous because the hormones can continually innervate vital organs; in my gf's case, her heart. Sure enough they found that her body wasn't producing the correct enzymes to degrade the hormones and so she began a regimen of artificial hormones. I am proud to say that in the 4 years since she has been on the treatment, she has been perfectly normal! And all without any damn surgery. I'm not a medical professional, but I knew my gf in and out. I think that the medical world would greatly benefit if there was some sort of greater collaboration between patient and doctor. Doctors are so busy that they don't have time to really understand the patient outside of the ailment at hand. At the same time, I understand how busy doctors are and how detached they must remain in order to maintain objectivity and professionalism.
jorsh 15y ago
I wonder how many existing patents this infringes on?
mattwilsoninc 15y ago
Incredibly inspiring.
brianobush 15y ago
A father's love, creativity and the hunger to fix what is broken. Awesome!

224 points by unfasten 15y ago

It goes to show that a man's love knows no boundaries of current science and technology. Innovation driven by determination can change fates. One of the best dads ever.

pwenzel 15y ago
Agreed, this is absolutely awesome and inspiring.
cyanbane 15y ago
Agreed, THIS is hacking.
goatforce5 15y ago
Father of the year.

freejack 15y ago

My son has cerebral palsy and I can see the immediate benefit that a machine like this would bring to him. We are currently using a similar harness on a regular treadmill, but this therapy doesn't help him learn that he needs to raise his feet and move them in a circular motion forward and then set them down again - seeing how the machine handles this using the same idea as an elliptical trainer immediately opened my eyes to the deficiencies in the approach we're using in the modern clinic we're attending. I would love to be able to help fund the development and manufacture of these devices in some way.

georgieporgie 15y ago
For what it's worth, his machine looks a lot like an elliptical trainer found and most gyms these days.
- jamesbressi 15y ago
  That was my first thought. I'm sure a few of us would pitch in and see if we can hack one of these together for freejack!
  - freejack 15y ago
    I'd love one :-) but there are tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of kids that could benefit from devices like these. I have no medical training, but the benefits seem obvious. Someone with some ambition would do well to track down the man that invented this and figure out a way to commercialize them. Physiotherapists are buying treadmills right now - I can't imagine that it would take much to validate these as a replacement.
- freejack 15y ago
  I was thinking the same thing, but a regular trainer has a much longer range of motion than a child can take advantage of. His looked much more kid friendly. I'm going to relatives in a few weeks and they have an elliptical trainer - I'm going to try Rowan out on it, and it if looks helpful, modding one to get rid of the handles and building a tripod would seem pretty straightforward.
  - georgieporgie 15y ago
    It also seems to me that the distance between the feet is rather large on the ellipticals I've seen, at least for a child's hip width. I assume this is due to the large flywheel or fan used for resistance. I think the one in the video had a pretty narrow gap between the feet, probably at least partly due to a simple, narrow flywheel, since his isn't for resistance training. I immediately started thinking about how one could use 2x4's and plywood flywheels, along with some steel rods and clamps, to mock up an experimental elliptical machine for sizing. A more permanent version should be fairly easy to make with off-the-shelf components, and some welded steel stock. Interesting problem!
esalazar 15y ago
You can always use kickstarter.com to fund projects like this one.
- steve_b 15y ago
  At the moment only US residents can create projects on Kickstarter. It's going to be awesome when they expand to other countries.
  - marquis 15y ago
    Someone could do it on his behalf, no?
    - esalazar 15y ago
      There is also indiegogo.com which I believe is available to anybody in the world.
  - ricardobeat 15y ago
    Most countries have their crowdfunding counterparts. There are two in Argentina: http://bananacash.com.ar http://bananacash.com.ar http://proyectanos.com http://proyectanos.com
- Fargren 15y ago
  What would he offer to healthy backers?
pdelgallego 15y ago
This is the website of the "Estimulador de marcha" were you can find all the information about the project. You can also find the inventor email address, if you want to be in contact with him. http://www.estimuladordemarcha.com.ar/ http://www.estimuladordemarcha.com.ar/
- freejack 15y ago
  Great find! Awesome. Thanks very much!!

miles_matthias 15y ago

This is the kind of entrepreneur I hope to be someday. A man on a mission, fixing something close to his heart. Just awesome.

davidedicillo 15y ago

I wish more hackers would invest their time and energies in this kind of projects. Inspiring.

melling 15y ago
I wish the HN readers would take on projects as a group. There are enough technical people that as a group would could actually accomplish a lot. I guess the trick is to find the right problems to crowdsource.
- dman 15y ago
  Great idea.
- ph0rque 15y ago
  I guess the trick is to find the right problems to crowdsource. Crowdsource that part, as well.
wavephorm 15y ago
But how do you convince a Silicon Valley venture capitalist to invest in something like this? If you say "we're building devices to help people walk" and some YC-funded group says "we're building a location-based restaurant recommendation app" who do you think is going to get millions in funding?
- VladRussian 15y ago
  >But how do you convince a Silicon Valley venture capitalist to invest in something like this? If you say "we're building devices to help people walk" and some YC-funded group says "we're building a location-based restaurant recommendation app" who do you think is going to get millions in funding? while i'd share you sentiment at emotional level, at practical level lets be just toward the VCs. They don't have the scale of money to invest into "building devices to help people walk" - to reach the stage when it can be sold (ie. FDA approved, blah-blah-blah, and without that your device would just not be able to reach the majority of the people who would need the device) it would take not millions, at the best case scenario it would take high tens of millions. On the other side by financing "a location-based restaurant recommendation app" the VCs' millions help to generate super-wealth which can take on the next scale challenges - look at Musk for example. Unfortunately, there aren't many Musk-s around (honestly i don't undestand why whouldn't Brin or Page or Ellison do something like Musk, they even have much more money than he does (he is even not that super-wealthy, more on the lower side of the range))

nowarninglabel 15y ago

There is so much inspiration here.

StavrosK 15y ago

I have literally never seen a single video on that BBC site, on any of my machines. It just keeps loading. Is it just me?

brador 15y ago
Nope. Me too. I usually just search Youtube for the same headline and a video usually turns up. I don't know who the spammer is who does it, but I'm grateful.
unfasten 15y ago
I think there are 2 reasons videos from the BBC don't load. The first, which I'm almost certain stops the loading, is having your Flash privacy settings to never store any information. I have mine set to ask me when a new site wants to store information, but I can't set it to "No. Don't ask me again" on the BBC because if I do then the videos never load. I have to hit the "Deny" button when it prompts me, which it does, annoyingly, multiple times throughout a single video. The second possible reason could be blocking of ad servers, but I'm not sure about this one.
- StavrosK 15y ago
  Ugh, what a stupid implementation. I'll give it a shot, thanks.
jronkone 15y ago
Me three.

maeon3 15y ago

Am I the only one who finds it disturbing that a mechanic was able to accomplish something that first world medical industry said couldn't be done? It just goes to show that if you have a disease, condition or injury, life threatening or not. It pays to self diagnose and be your own doctor. We can specialize more in our specific problem than an entire industry devoted to the body of all problems.

meta 15y ago
I think my key take-away would have been: the closer you are to the problem the better your solution can be. I would venture to guess current therapies were developed by health professions and engineers at arms length to intended patients (via books and maybe some user-testing in constrained environments). This solution was inspired and developed by a father who is involved with the health problem every day for long periods of time in real world situations. That provided a much better view of the problem space. I am not sure if self diagnosing is a great idea or what I would identify as a key take-away. But accepting solutions blindly could be.
- hansy 15y ago
  Indeed...it's really difficult (in time measures) for doctors or physicians to reach a level of familiarity with the patient on par with the relationship the patient has with his/her family, friends, etc. This inability to do so often leads to oversights. True story. My ex-gf started experiencing cardiac arrests in college, which is rare for individuals of her age. Of course, her parents took her to some of the top physicians in the U.S. as well as in London and they all claimed she needed a very risky surgery for her heart. The arrests were scarring her heart tissue and any new arrest could permanently damage the organ further. The doctors knew that she would experience these arrests when she became extremely emotional or stressed out, yet couldn't pinpoint exactly what the problem was. They simply thought she had an unnaturally fast heartbeat, which led to the arrests. As her bf, I had taken her on amazing dates and watched horror movies with her, so I knew that I had put her through various emotional stages (complete with crazy fast hearbeats) without her ever experiencing an arrest. Luckily at the time, I was studying Endocrinology in college, so I proposed that there might be particular hormones in her system that weren't being flushed out of her body...which is very dangerous because the hormones can continually innervate vital organs; in my gf's case, her heart. Sure enough they found that her body wasn't producing the correct enzymes to degrade the hormones and so she began a regimen of artificial hormones. I am proud to say that in the 4 years since she has been on the treatment, she has been perfectly normal! And all without any damn surgery. I'm not a medical professional, but I knew my gf in and out. I think that the medical world would greatly benefit if there was some sort of greater collaboration between patient and doctor. Doctors are so busy that they don't have time to really understand the patient outside of the ailment at hand. At the same time, I understand how busy doctors are and how detached they must remain in order to maintain objectivity and professionalism.

jorsh 15y ago

I wonder how many existing patents this infringes on?

mattwilsoninc 15y ago

Incredibly inspiring.

brianobush 15y ago

A father's love, creativity and the hunger to fix what is broken. Awesome!