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Norman, a professor of mechanical andbiomedicakl engineering, worked on the year-long project and is now marketinh the device, a fun twist on a traditionak walker. Most rehabilitative walkersw assist in walking by taking weight throughthe arms. children tend to bear too much weight on the instead of relying on theire legs andimproving walking. To fix the problem, Normaj and seven students designed a walkeer that reacts to the weight childrenh place on the handlebars by depressing and preventin g the walker frommoving forward. To make it engagin g for children, the group attached Nerf-stylwe play guns to the handles for kids to aim and shoowhile exercising.
"Using a walker is like usintg a treadmill," Norman said. "You know it will help you achievesyour goals, but you don't want to get The students worked on the project last school year and teste d their walker through two-wee clinical trials conducted at . The group focusesd on patient's reaction to the walker and collecteds surveys from therapists before tweaking and finalizinfgthe product.
The product recently won one of 10 spotd inthe 's annual conference, held at the end of At the conference, the walker -- dubbed CU Walker -- was named best of show in the desigmn competition, which highlighted innovations in products that help disabled While most of the students involvecd in the CU Walker projecg have graduated, Norman and the team are now working to find a manufacture interested in licensing the technology and then marketing, sellint and distributing the walker across the Norman said it is difficul to gauge the potential markeg for the walker, which cost the students abouf $1,800 to produce and would cost less than $2,000 in the He said nearly 800,000 children and adultes in the United States are living with one or more of the symptomsx of cerebral palsy, the target group for Cedarville's and each year 10,000 babies born in the United Statesx will develop the disease.
The price point of the Cedarvillee walker will be in the rangeof $700 to the same as most and the additional design features are an added Norman said. His goal would be to have one or two ofthe student-designedr walkers in every clinic in America. Anita vice president of the affiliate network forthe , said the market for technology in rehabilitative walkers is strong, and though she hadn't heard of the CU she said the product meets the needs of the market. "Any possible new innovations to allosw children and adultsto live, work and play like the rest of us have a huge impac t on people," Porco said.
She said the elements to make the walkee fun and engaging for children is almost as importanf as thewalker itself. "Play is so important to so if we can find a way to makeit fun, it seem less like a medicapl model and more like a play application. Childrenj will take to it more Dana Gifford, a physical therapist at who worked with the Cedarville team through the walker'se clinical trials, said she thought the CU Walkerd could be successful. "I could see how it could be used Gifford said. "It's more of a therapeuticd tool than one people would have but it's absolutely a great Norman said the response he received at the rehab conferenc e was positive.
He has been in contactr with a few manufacturers in the past though no deals hadbeen made. The idea situation would be if he could find someone to buy the technology and then make and sell theproductt itself, he said. Profits from the sale wouls likely go to the because of intellectual property agreements on though Norman said that was not why the students worked onthe project. "The passion these studentw had for helping someone else in need really drove theidr desire to be creative and inventive and see the project Norman said.
"Without the passion to do it becomes another projectall
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