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Wrex

3D-printed 'magic arms' give little girl new reach

Thanks to 3D-printed plastic appendages, 4.5-year-old Emma Lavelle now plays with blocks.

Born with a rare neuromuscular condition called Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita that causes contracted joints and muscle weakness, Emma has almost nonexistent biceps that cannot move against gravity. Her "magic arms," as she has dubbed them, change that.

The plastic appendages attach to a Wilmington Robotic Exoskeleton (WREX) developed at the Center for Orthopedics Research and Development at Delaware's Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children. The WREX is a modular body-powered upper-limb orthosis generally mounted to a wheelchair.

"The existing WREX is all metal parts and is kind of big," Tariq Rahman, a mechanical engineer and head of pediatric engineering and research at Nemours, explains in the video below. "Emma was too small for that, so it required something light and small that would attach to her body that would go with her." … Read more

Rovio now navigating to a store near you

Last week, we reported that Wrex the Dog was showing up at select U.S. e-tailers. On Monday, WowWee, maker of CNET editor Bonnie Cha's favorite work companion RoboSapien, announced that Rovio the roving robotic Web camera is now beginning to show up at some e-tailers.

While Wrex is cute and all, he doesn't really serve any functional purpose. Rovio, however, is cute and extremely functional. His three roving wheels let him move in pretty much any direction. Using an indoor GPS system, Rovio is able to, quite impressively, find his way around the house.

His Wi-Fi-enabled Webcam … Read more

Wrex the dog unleased on U.S. e-tailers

While we covered WowWee's Wrex the unruly robo-dog a couple months back, he is finally available at U.S. e-tail stores. I know we've all been waiting for an unruly, uncouth, ill-behaved robot dog to complement our unruly, uncouth, ill-behaved real dogs, so wait no longer.

Amazon.com has him for $141 and is currently listed as in stock. Buy.com has him for $150, but currently lists him as out of stock. Hammacher Schlemmer has him listed for $130, but has an expected ship date of September 26. Major retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart don't … Read more

Meet Wrex, the uncouth robo-dog

It's been a busy few days for the guys over at RobotsRule. First they got a hands-on look at the "Tri-Bot," successor to the once-beloved Robosapien, and now they've set their sights on "Wrex The Dawg."

The latest creation from WowWee's bot meisters is an ill-mannered toy that's "absolutely terrible at being a dog and even worse at being a robot," the site says, "with an appearance that resembles Frankenstein's Dog if he were assembled from a disjointed set of junkyard parts and a face not even a … Read more