Manual standing wheelchair – no batteries required

The device is a manual standing wheelchair providing mobility in either a seated or standing position.

The Center for Bionic Medicine (CBM) has developed an innovative manual standing wheelchair. It is one of the first manual wheelchairs to offer users the ability to be mobile in either a seated or standing position. It consists of a unique hand drive mechanism so users can manually drive the wheels of the wheelchair while seated or standing, or in the full range of positions in between.

MedGadget May 24, 2017

The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, recently renamed to Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, has developed a new wheelchair that allows its users to switch between a sitting and standing positions while retaining the ability to move and steer the chair in any direction. The fully mechanical device uses bicycle chains to transfer power from a tank tread-like push bars to either the wheels or the system that lifts its user.

The raising/lowering mechanism is intuitive and the tread bars are similar to operate compared to traditional wheelchairs.

The user can remain upright to converse with others while walking down a flat sidewalk and lower as necessary to overcome uneven surfaces or simply to sit down to eat.

A belt strap is used to keep the legs from bending while standing to help maintain a proper upright posture, which should help not just with interacting with others, but to promote better blood circulation, prevent butt sores, and improve a number of other issues related to sitting in a traditional wheelchair for long periods of time.

It’s not clear at this point when the device will be made into a real product and if there will be electric or only manually powered versions.

Source MedGadget