Exercise in invention

The Able-X exercise device has shown promising results in clinical trials.

Able-X won first prize in the prototype category of the 2010 Engineers Australia College of Biomedical Engineering Better Technology Awards.

Developed by the Christchurch-based Assistive Devices team, it has shown promising results in clinical trials and will go to market later this year.

Able-X, which is now being commercialised through Wellington-based partner company Im-Able, is a suite of specially designed computer games with a bilateral exercise device. It allows a person with an arm disability, resulting from neurological injury, to exercise their limb while playing engaging games.

“It was a very special feeling to be recognised by our scientific peers for excellence in this field,” says programme leader and research engineer Marcus King.

“This award gives credibility to our research and shows that we are leading the way in rehabilitation science – an essential requirement for securing future funding.”

Able-X can be used by people across a broad spectrum of disability, from those who are severely paralysed to those who are almost fully able-bodied.

There have been promising results from clinical trials undertaken at the University of Otago’s Rehabilitative Exercise and Activity for Life Neurology Research Group.

"We've had reports that people who have one paralysed arm and have been having to drive their car single-handedly can now use both hands on the steering wheel at once," says King.

A market release is planned for late 2010 for Able-X, which was developed in collaboration with Christchurch-based companies Stickmen Studios and Pukka Design Studio. It incorporates an inertial sensor game console developed by Taiwanese-based IRL collaborator the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

The award was presented at the recent Australian Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Association’s National Conference in Hobart, at which Marcus spoke about his work.