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In its infancy in his twenties, Lee Nam-hyun was an avid swimmer. In 2004 he broke his neck in a swimming pool, which left him standing shoulder to shoulder. Wound recovery required years of rehabilitation.
The accident temporarily interrupted his love of singing. Opera and K-pop songs are his favorites, and being able to sing them again became one of the main goals of his recovery. But the lack of bone marrow and limited lung capacity could not even make me cough. When he tried to sing, he said, it was more than a whimper or a whisper.
“The singing I did before and after was completely different,” he says. “Tones, sounds, heartbeats – I couldn’t get any more after I was injured. It was a sound that could not be heard. “
About two years after the accident, a health care professional forced him to cough by pushing against his diaphragm. He learned that putting pressure on his stomach could help create a greater sound.
Nearly a decade later, he learned through therapists about a prototype device being built for this purpose, and began working with a biorobotics lab at Lee University National University. The device would eventually take the name Exo-Abs. Its creators call it the first such robotic device to help people breathe, cough, talk and sing by automatically putting pressure on their stomachs.
The creators of the device, which began as a class project, hope to turn it into a commercial product someday. Researchers in the robotics lab began working on the prototype device after a well-known singer Kim Hyuk-gun was hit by a car and stopped Kim in 2012 after becoming the lead vocalist for Cross, a band whose South Korean karaoke songs are still a popular choice. bars. He is known for his singing style which can be similar to screaming, and he was injured and two years later started working with a biorobotics lab on a device to sing at a similar volume. The researchers later learned that patients with spinal cord injuries need support not only to move their bodies again but also with respiratory therapy.
“When you breathe, you’re basically pushing your stomach and reducing your lung volume, so we’re trying to mimic that process,” says Cho Kyu-jin, a professor at Seoul National University.
He is the director of the Soft Robotics Research Center at Cho University, a biorobotics laboratory that takes inspiration from the natural world as well as the human body. Aside from Exo-Abs, Cho has also created a robotic hand called Exo-Glove, a glider with wings like a ladybug, and also called a robot that simulates water skimmers. Jesus beetles for their ability to walk on water.
“All robots that can be carried today are moving limbs, like arms, shoulders and legs,” he says. Exo-Abs is different, “because it’s basically changing your entire body volume.” But he says the potential of the device is largely unexplored, as it is not very well known.
People suffering from stroke or neurological disorders need constant care, including respiratory therapy. Failure to clean the respiratory tract can lead to diseases such as pneumonia and premature death. People nowadays use equipment like a fan mask to help them breathe, but the creators of Exo-Abs believe that their device could someday replace fans for some people.
Unlike devices that may require the use of a face mask or fan, it can be hidden under an Exo-Abs T-shirt. The machines that operate the device fit inside a backpack to attach to the back of the wheelchair. The current repetition of Exo-Abs consists of bands located on the chest and in the middle to measure breathing and press against the diaphragm.
This is the third version of Exo-Abs. The first was that the user had to manually control it with a joystick and connect it to a power outlet. The second could be the backpack version for people with ailments like BPK, who don’t need help all the time but may have problems with, for example, not having to breathe to climb stairs.
Exo-Abs helps paralyzed people by singing by putting pressure on the middle section.
It uses the latest version of Exo-Abs Artificial intelligence to regulate the pressure in the middle of a person. The AI is powered by sensors that include a microphone that is perceived when a person is speaking, and an elastic tube that is connected by a belt around the middle section to control breathing levels. It also affects a person’s physical condition, body shape, stiffness in the user’s abdominal cavity, and user activity. A song that requires a lot of effort like opera, for example, requires more pressure than sitting quietly and conversing.
Lee Sang-yoep, a PhD student at Seoul National University who works with Cho, envisions other uses for Exo-Abs, such as synchronizing artificial abs with music or singing puzzle games Clapping a hand.
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