Breakthrough device integrates physical, cognitive, emotive therapy using personalized video games and robotics to improve stroke, traumatic brain injury patients

Bright Cloud International Corp. is a medical device and software development company that designs, patents and will market advanced computerized rehabilitation systems. Bright Cloud International is the first, and thus far only company to combine physical, cognitive and emotive rehabilitation into an integrated therapy. This therapy is based on highly engaging custom games that are automatically adaptable to the patient's characteristics. BCI is also the first company to offer a robotic rehabilitation platform that uses this novel therapy to train both arms at the same time, while reducing the patient's depression and improving memory and focusing. The prototype BrightArm has been built and underwent successful trials with elderly stroke survivors who were long-term residents of a nursing home. Arm function increases were up to 4 times larger than those reported using the leading commercial arm rehabilitation robot. The patients' mood improved noticeably, as did their ability to focus. This work was funded by an SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health / NINDS.

www.brightcloudint.com

Affordable robotic tools for children with autism

The CDC currently estimates that 1% of children in the United States will be diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Children with ASD often struggle with critical social referencing skills such as focusing on faces, recognizing emotions, and responding to directions. Recent research has shown that children with ASD have an easier time interacting with robots than people. Interbots has leveraged these findings to create an affordable consumer robot and accompanying iPad/PC software that allows therapists and parents to guide children (ages 3-15) through activities that practice social referencing skills. Our goal is to become the leader in Autism robotics, providing parents and therapists with software, robotic tools, and curricula to support the social, emotional, and cognitive development of children with ASD.

www.interbots.com

Manufacturing low-priced versatile robots for special needs therapy and STEM education and outreach

Origami Robotics develops dynamic robots embodying cutting-edge technology and research for a wide range of special needs therapies, including therapy for ASD. We maximize the therapeutic value using a minimal number of components, allowing our robots to be both effective and low-cost. Our robots fully engage the user community for development, construction, deployment and usage support and integrate STEM education and outreach programs. Open-source viral distribution techniques delilver progressive therapeutic technology to the public as it is being developed, in a cost effective manner. Origami's go to market strategy includes all the elements necessary to become a market leader in therapeutic robotics.

RescueBotics is a pre-funded start-up organization focused on integrating the latest in robotics technologies with next generation medical diagnostics and treatment technologies to produce the world’s most advanced human rescue robots that will help provide mission critical feedback, diagnosis reports and basic treatment to victims. This will allow the simplification of rescue missions, be it in response to natural or man-made disasters.

Tactile feedback for robotic surgical systems

TactSense Technologies offers a novel tactile feedback system capable of sensing the forces at the surgical instrument-tissue interface and then relaying those forces directly to the surgeon's fingertips. The TactSense technology is offered as a stand-alone device and is also licensable to existing companies for integration into their surgical robot systems. With restored tactile feedback, surgeons will expand their use of robotic surgical systems to more complex procedures and improve surgical results in significantly more patient populations.