<p><br /> A New Zealand company has invented a unique pair of bionic legs that is allowing a paraplegic to walk again.<br /> </p><p><br /> The inventors have been working on the design in secret for seven years and used paraplegic Hayden Allen to test their work.<br /> </p><p><br /> The bionic legs allowed Allen to walk across the room and shake hands with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key eye to eye, instead of reaching up from a wheelchair.<br /> </p><p><br /> Allen is paralysed from the chest down following a motorcycle accident five years ago.<br /> </p><p><br /> He said he couldn't "walk away? Or roll away" from the opportunity to walk again when asked to test the bionic legs.<br /> </p><p><br /> Allen's family had been kept in the dark about his involvement in the project, and only found out at the launch.<br /> </p><p><br /> "Seeing him here today, it's just blown us away, it's brought tears to our eyes really," said his father Ron Allen.<br /> </p><p><br /> Rex was designed by Auckland-based inventors Richard Little and Robert Irving, initially in their spare time.<br /> </p><p><br /> "There's no other device that we know of that's autonomous and allows people to stand, walk, go up and down stairs and slopes and things independently," Little told reporters at the launch.<br /> </p><p><br /> The legs weigh 38 kilograms and have to be made to measure for the user. The first pair sold is expected to go for around 150-thousand US dollars, about the same price as 20 standard wheelchairs.<br /> </p>
