Freedom Innovations to Commercialize “Powered Knee and Ankle System”

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Freedom Innovations, an Irvine, CA based manufacturer of advanced technology prosthetic devices, has announced it will commercialize and help finalize development of the worlds first fully powered prosthetic leg technology with the potential for the human mind to control its movements.

Through the result of an exclusive worldwide licensing arrangement with Vanderbilt University, Freedom will develop and commercialize a first generation product utilizing sophisticated mechanical control systems that will mimic the power and gait characteristics of the human leg. Future generations of the product may incorporate neurological control systems, making the technology even more lifelike by allowing the user to control the movements through the brain. This phase of the technology is being developed and refined through partnerships with thought leading organizations like the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC). Work in this area has already begun using an early prototype of the Powered Leg in a study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine by RIC.

The Freedom Powered Knee and Ankle System features state of the art microelectronic technology, which allows intelligent communication between the user and the prosthesis. It received global attention last week when a team of researchers led by PhD, Levi Hargrove, Lab Director from the RICs Center for Bionic Medicine, announced promising results in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers, working with the advanced motorized knee and ankle prosthesis developed at Vanderbilt Universitys Center for Intelligent Mechatronics, studied and measured the brain-driven steering capabilities of the device. The study revealed that with this new technology designed for above-the-knee amputees, the rate of errors, including the risk of falls, was reduced to just 1.8 percent with the new device, down from 12.9 percent with the standard robotic leg prosthesis.

Additional refinements are needed to make the first generation powered leg commercially viable -- and that is where Freedom Innovations role comes into play. The company is working on making the motorized devices smaller, quieter, more robust and more user-friendly overall.

"The positive results of this study are an important milestone for Freedom Innovations as we embark on the next step toward making this remarkable technology available to amputees, said Maynard Carkhuff, President and CEO of Freedom Innovations. Our mission to bring innovative products to enable people with physical disabilities to achieve their full potential is being taken to an absolute new level now as we will soon be able to provide amputees with functional limbs they can control that will be even more user friendly, smaller, quieter and more mobile than the prototypes used in the RIC study.

Carkhuff added that Freedom plans to have the technology available within three to five years. Additional designs to modularize the system will also ensure that transtibial (below-the-knee) amputees will also have the opportunity to benefit from the powered ankle and foot technology.

Freedom Innovations, LLC (www.freedom-innovations.com) designs, manufactures, and markets advanced technology lower extremity prosthetic devices that provide people with physical challenges the ability to reach their full potential. Based in Irvine, California Freedoms lower extremity prosthetics are distributed around the world.

Media: Interviews and photos are available upon request. Please contact Paul Williams at 949/916-6880 or via paul@medialinecommunications.com.

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Freedom Innovations to Commercialize “Powered Knee and Ankle System”