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Original air date:
10.17.07
High Tech Wheelchairs for Racers, Athletes...and Dancers?
Think a wheelchair can only help a disabled person get down the street? Think again. Engineers, artist and wheelchair users are developing new conveyances that let their riders do everything from extreme sports to ballet.
Companies like Ohio-based Top End specialize in wheelchairs for unconventional athletes: low, sleek models for racing, heavy-duty ones that turn on a dime for basketball and quad rugby, and a 27-gear hand-powered bicycle. Researchers at the University of South Florida, meanwhile, are working on a range of wheelchairs designed to let users do more of the things fully mobile folks take for granted. A "tank chair" can cruise through off-road terrain; another can be raised and lowered to allow its occupant to make straight-ahead eye contact and to get things down from high places. Most dazzling is a hands-free chair that responds to subtle movements its user makes, gliding forward and back and round and round to enable a graceful, wheeled dance.
WIRED Science's Ziya Tong meets the makers and users of these fast-forwarding vehicles and watches them put through their paces, from the design lab to the basketball court and the dance floor.
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10.18.07 8:54 AM PDT
johnny "gadget" gaulke
Hi I saw your show on wheel chairs the other day and i all so saw one the other day about a young lady with her dog who was in a wheel chair i am a young inventor and i came up with the idea of making a wheel chair with the dog under the pearson who is in the wheeel chair i have a prototype built and would like get involved in helping people with this problem. if some would call me I would love to talk to some one about this I am at 763-633-8940- I live just out side of mlps thanks for your time and I hope to hear from someone soon. you could e-mail me too. thanks johnny gadjet
10.18.07 9:40 AM PDT
Maggie
SWEET MAN!
10.21.07 5:17 PM PDT
Kailyn
I agree with Maggie.
10.23.07 12:54 AM PDT
MikeAaron
Hi, I was glad to see that proper attention,long over due, was being given to the improvement of the wheelchair, a piece of mobility equipment that's pretty much remained in the dark ages as far as versatility is concerned. I have recently had to add a wheelchair to my life. i own the latest crossfire titanium and even thou its amazingly light, its lack of versatility with various everyday city terrains is quite frustrating... so it gives me hope to see these advancements taking place.
7.23.08 8:45 PM PDT
jan
there is a man who lives in high desert - he is a viet nam vet and he repairs wheelchairs for other veterans and also iraqi vets who are losing limbs in iraq but they are trying to make more artifical limbs for them but not all can use artifical limb so wheel chair is answer - glad to see new designs to help our troops coming home so they lead a better life
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