The Latest Pneumatic Knee Brace Is An Automatic Pump Supporter

Mar, 2021 - By WMR

The smart pneumatic knee brace provides support to vulnerable knee joints and reduces chances of injury.

To avoid any chances of injury, many athletes or sportsperson make use of a knee brace to help support the knee joints. Korean exoskeleton manufacturer C-EXO is modifying this idea further into a smart pneumatically activated knee brace.

This smart knee brace has many standard features and is also known as E-Knee. The features include, support bard that are flexible and run vertically along either side, a gel-ring stabilizer that is placed around the kneecap, a body that is made of elastic, and breathable fabric.

What makes this device unique is the five airbags attached to it. Two of them are placed above the knee joint, two below them, and one is placed around it. These airbags are connected by a silicone hosing to a control box that is attached to the top of the brace magnetically. The control box consists of an ARM control chip, an IMU (inertial measurement unit), a lithium battery, and an electric pump.

Once the knee brace is powered up, continuous movements of the knee are detected by the IMU. The control box quickly responds by selectively pumping air in an out of the five air-bags and the pressure the brace applies to the joints varies. C-EXO states that this setup permits the E-Knee to provide maximum amount of support with consistency and also gives the most comfortable fit no matter what the knee position is.

The entire device weighs around 320g and can be used for about 35 hours depending upon the wired or the wireless charge of the battery. When the brace needs to be cleaned, the control box should just be pulled out and then the cleaning can be done. These knee braces cost US$ 159 for a single brace and US$ 289 for a pair.