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Barely three weeks after writing about new robotic walking systems right here on TCMW: it’s Tuesday night, I’m watching the last segment of the Glee Christmas show and I almost fall out of my chair when Artie, the show’s token singing, dancing, rarely moping paraplegic gets a bona fide Robotic Walking Device for Christmas! And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but the actual ReWalk system developed by a quadriplegic in Israel (the real thing, not Hollywood smoke and mirrors). I should have seen it coming during the sub plot that features an Artie dream sequence with him sans wheelchair dancing it up with the rest of the cast, and Brittany, Artie’s girlfriend telling Santa (Coach Bieste in a Santa suite) that all she wants for Christmas is for Artie to walk again. But I am nevertheless overjoyed; not just because the most-watched prime-time television show has featured the very latest in walking technology as part of the plot, but that there’s also a mention of stem cell research earlier in the show (“we’re still a few years off,” claims Sam as the Gleek jocks discuss the latest research developments for SCI with Coach Bieste).

Public awareness of Spinal Cord Injury has truly come a long way, not just of the disability itself, but now, more than ever, potential cures that were once obscure even to the SCI population are miraculously making their way into the daily conversation. As I mention in I Robot ; The Rise of Robotic Walking Technology, when I was first injured in 1984 I was told by doctors that little had been done in the way of a cure for paralysis from spinal cord injury since the first battle field survivors of WWII began arriving home in wheelchairs. As I encountered more practitioners closer to the Physical Medicine and Rehab (PM&R) discipline, it was generally accepted that there would most likely be a “mechanical” cure for SCI long before they figured out how to organically reconnect the millions of broken synapses in an injured spinal cord.

In my first I Robot post I highlighted basically two broad types of walking devices that have surfaced recently: a free-standing, more utilitarian ‘vehicle’ that you mount yourself into and control with a joystick, as illustrated by “Rex” from New Zealand, and eLegs, a more aesthetically pleasing closer fitting garment, that the user dons while balancing themselves with crutches, while hidden servos embedded in the garment provide the leg movement. eLegs is actually manufactured by a defense contractor, and a source in the medical field tells me that more advanced versions are being secretly tested and perfected that have super-GIs leaping distances of up to 30 feet ala Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. ReWalk seems to be a middle ground between the two; the exoskeleton that provides movement is bulky and fits on the outside like Rex’s, yet it is smaller and less cumbersome, and the user works in conjunction with Lofstrand crutches as with the eLegs.

My only criticism of the ReWalk’s appearance on Glee is that I wish it could have shown more of the device in action—I realize this may not have fit in properly with the overall dramatic pacing of the show—however it will be interesting to see if the Rewalk makes regular appearances as part of Artie’s mobility repertoire beyond the chair. Perhaps how often we get used to seeing such a thing regularly around fictional McKinley High in Lima Ohio will be a bellwether of how soon we will start seeing robotic walking devices and their ilk in the real world.