WDBD FOX 40 Jackson MS Local News, Weather and Sports

WDBD Television for Jackson, MS

    Emily DeCiccio

    New prosthetic helping veterans in and out of the water

    Veteran amputees able to swim again with new prosthetic fin

    A look at how the 3D printing lab of Northwell Health created a new lower-limb prosthetic to be used for swimming and other aquatic activities, called ‘The FIN’. Fox News spoke to NYPD Lieutenant Seamus Doherty to discuss how ‘The Fin’ has impacted his life both on and off the police force.

    “The FIN” started as a one-off example to restore a veteran amputee’s drive to go back into the water. Now, it’s becoming a tool that is delivering new hope and restoring aquatic mobility for lower-limb amputees.

    Last year, Dr. Todd Goldstein’s 3-D printing lab of Northwell Health created a new lower-limb prosthetic to be used for swimming, called “The FIN.”

    TEEN WITH SEVERE BOWLEGS UNDERGOES LIFE-CHANGING OPERATION

    “The FIN came about as a way for Northwell to give back to our veteran community,” Goldstein told Fox News. “But as we were working through the progress of making a one-off custom piece for one of our veterans, it looked like it could work for other amputees.”

    One of those amputees is NYPD Lieutenant Seamus Doherty, who lost his lower leg in 2002 in a motorcycle accident.

    “Immediately after the accident, my leg was severed below the knee, so it was completely gone,” Doherty said. “It took me a year to get back on my feet and to get fitted for my original prosthetic.”

    Doherty did not let his prosthetic deter him from advancing his career – he’s been promoted to sergeant, lieutenant and lieutenant commander since his accident – but he felt the limitations when it came to his young son.

    FOX NEWS STAFFERS BUILD BIKES FOR USO’S OPERATION ‘THAT’S MY RIDE’ 

    “I think the one main thing that was missing with the prosthetic that I had previously was the ability to freely go in and out of the water without the fear of destroying it, since they’re very expensive,” he said. “My son loves the beach and I wasn’t able to do everything I wanted with him in the prosthetic.”

    Dr. Ona Bloom, a professor at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health, explained to Fox News how the FIN confronted the problems of typical prosthetics.

    “The FIN is printed at a lower cost than traditional swim prosthetics and has some design features such as a non-slip sole that is optimized for use on wet surfaces, and a flexible ankle hinge that fits over an individual’s typical socket,” Bloom said. “That means it can easily be used to transition between swimming and other activities of daily living without requiring the user to switch prostheses.”

    Goldstein said 3-D printing technology allows his team to print patient-specific measurements quickly with functionality.

    “With 3-D printing in 3-D design, we can scale everything up and change the design pretty rapidly,” Goldstein said.

    Thanks to the FIN, Doherty is now able to freely take part in the aquatic activities that he loves to share with his son.

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    “I could actually take full part in the activities that he enjoyed,” Doherty said. “I can go underwater with him and feel free that I can jump up and stand, and I have two feet if I need to grab him. It’s just so much more relaxed and so much more enjoyable.”

    Emily DeCiccio is a reporter and video producer for Fox News Digital Originals. Tweet her @EmilyDeCiccio

    RoboKiller: As robocalls grow, the consumer bites back

    The scariest thing about October 2019 had nothing to do with witches, goblins, or ghouls. Some 5.5. billion robocalls were placed to Americans in October, a 12 percent spike from September, according to data compiled by anti-spam app RoboKiller.

    The problem is getting even worse as consumers enter holiday season: 5.6 billion robocalls were reportedly made in November 2019, which is equivalent to nearly 22 spam calls for every person.

    The robocall epidemic is not new to 2019. In 2015 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held Robocall contests to combat the burgeoning numbers of illegal automated calls across the United States. The RoboKiller app won the FTC’s Robocalls: Humanity Strikes Back and is currently on the frontlines of the fight against scammers.

    7 WAYS TO STOP ROBOCALLS NOW

    Ethan Garr, the co-founder of RoboKiller, told Fox News why his app is unique and how it takes the fight to the scammers.

    “What’s cool about our app is not only do we block robocalls and scammers but that we also answer those calls with Answer Bots, which are robots of our own,” he said. “They talk back to the spammers and waste their time so we help you take the fight back to the spammers.”

    To create those Answer Bots, Garr’s company harnessed audio fingerprinting. Audio fingerprinting is the same technology where we hold up our phones and ask, “What song is playing?” That’s the technology that determines whether the call coming to your phone is from a human, a scammer, or a robot.

    Once the app detects an unwanted call, the Answer Bots go to work and answer the calls from a diverse collection of recordings.

    ROBOCALL ‘HIJACKING’ IS ON THE RISE, REPORT WARNS

    “Our Answer Bots will answer these calls on your behalf and whether it’s one you’ve set up or one we’ve created, like a Trump or Hillary impersonator, for example,” said Garr.

    The Answer Bots take the scammer on a long, entertaining, yet, futile conversation that completely squanders their time, and that is what is crucial in the fight against robocalls.

    “If you look at the robocall epidemic, the root cause of it is economics and opportunity,” explained Garr.

    The opportunity for spammers is ubiquitous, and Garr revealed that scammers can make thousands of calls per second and that it costs them almost nothing, which is where the economics come into play.

    “The economics and opportunity are so much in favor of the spammer, and that’s what has driven this epidemic,” said Garr. “It’s driven it to this 5.6 billion call-level in October and about that in November.”

    3 REASONS ROBOCALLS ARE HARD TO STOP (AND 5 THINGS TO DO ABOUT THEM)

    Wasting the spammers’ time hits them in their wallets.

    “When the Answer Bots talk to a spammer for 45 minutes on end or 20 minutes on end, that’s time that they can’t use to go scam someone else,” said Garr. “Each time our Answer Bot wastes their time, it’s time that takes that impacts them and time is money for them.”

    Congress is also taking action to diminish the robocall epidemic. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Pallone-Thune TRACED Act on Dec. 4.

    “This legislation combats the robocall epidemic by ensuring every call Americans receive will be verified and can be blocked at no extra cost to consumers,” Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA), and Subcommittee Ranking Member Bob Latta (R-OH) said, in a statement. “It also gives the Federal Communications Commission and law enforcement the authority to quickly go after scammers.”

    The bill is now moving on to the U.S. Senate and is one step closer to becoming law.

    HOUSE PASSES ANTI-ROBOCALL BILL IN MAJOR CRACKDOWN ON SPAM CALLS

    “This act will give the FCC and other law enforcement authorities a lot more room to go after the bad actors,” explained Garr. “So, they’ll be really able to really go after people with more teeth in terms of how they go about the enforcement actions.”

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    To hear RoboKiller in action and to watch the full interview with Ethan Garr, watch the video above.

    Emily DeCiccio is a reporter and video producer for Fox News Digital Originals. Tweet her @EmilyDeCiccio

    ‘Sci-fi’ electrode sleeve offers new hope for millions of paralysis patients

    Cutting-edge technology is giving new hope to millions of people living with paralysis across the United States. Researchers at The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research have successfully developed a light-weight, wearable electrode sleeve that regulates and triggers finger movement in quadriplegics.

    PRO ATHLETES UNITE TO BRING WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL AND HEALING TO THOSE TRAPPED IN WAR

    The lead researcher, Chad Bouton, said his team developed the sleeve after they determined there was brain activity in motor areas years after severe injuries. The team realized that there was a way to stimulate the arm and isolate individual finger movements.

    “This has been a very difficult problem in the world of rehabilitating folks living with paralysis after a stroke or a spinal cord injury,” Bouton told Fox News. “The hand is one of the most challenging areas of the body to rehabilitate because of that fine movement and all of the types of intricate motions the fingers in hand can do.”

    The unique way in which Bouton’s team learned to stimulate muscles led to the development of a wearable sleeve that patients could use every day. The sleeve allows for refined motor movement, and all of the actions are completed by the participants’ own volition. That means the sleeve picks up the muscle’s attempt to motion and then stimulates, over the skin, to help with the movement and complete the task.

    Casey Ellin, 32, became one of the first patients to test out the sleeve.

    AI MAY DETECT AFIB IN JUST 10 SECONDS

    “I went into the study with no expectations,” Ellin said. “At first when I tried it, I felt like I was in some sort of sci-fi movie getting an upgrade, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I went in thinking that what we are doing at the study could benefit so many people in the future.”

    Ellin suffered a cervical spinal cord injury in June 2013 while diving in the ocean at Jones Beach. Doctors diagnosed him with having a C5 spinal cord injury, which meant he had substantial motor and sensory limitations.

    Bouton told Fox News that Ellin has been able to make great strides with the sleeve.

    “Casey’s been able to wear the sleeve and use it to pick up things, like a granola bar, and then feed himself, and these types of accomplishments are very, very important,” he said.

    Ellin said he believes that this type of invention has the potential to open many doors for the disabled community.

    “Being able to have the use of one’s hands, even in a limited capacity would be a game-changer,” Ellin said. “Studies like this give me a lot of hope for the future, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

    Bouton echoed Ellin’s optimism for the future of paralysis patients.

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    “If you have a wearable form of this type of stimulation, these types of electrodes, you can wear it not only on the upper limb, but also the lower limb,” Bouton said. “And we are working with folks to explore that, and we hope in the future to potentially even help people regain leg movement and maybe one day even walking.”