Power Armor For the Elderly

aicrules writes "The question of how to care for the growing number of people in the upper age bracket has a new answer - assistive power armor for the elderly." From the article: "The sleek, high-tech get-up looks like a white suit of armor. It straps onto a person's arms, legs and back and is equipped with a computer, motors and sensors that detect electric nerve signals transmitted from the brain when a person tries to move his limbs. When the sensors detect the nerve signals, the computer starts up the relevant motors to assist the person's motions. Sankai says the suit, dubbed 'Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) 5,' can let a person who can barely do an 176-pound leg press handle 397 pounds."

Comments

Sounds like an SNL skit...

[Anonymous Coward]

(robot insurance)

"Because robots eat old people's medicine for food. And robots are strong."

"For when the metal ones come for you."

Power Assist Suit

[pararox]

I live in Chicago and just recently attended the Wired NextFest, where there was a demo for a "Power Assist Suite" (see a picture here: http://www.vcl.uh.edu/~pavlidis/nextfest/photos/Fi gure%2017.JPG). It was cool in concept, but I was rather let down having seen the thing in action; it was extremely cumbersome and took a good ten minutes to prepare.

The device here looks much more appropriate, while having many of the same features as the one presented at NextFest.

Hell's Grannies

[Nept]

Voice Over: What are they in it for, these old hoodlums, these layabouts in lace?

First Granny: (voice over) Well it's something to do isn't it?

Second Granny: (voice over) It's good fun.

Third Granny: (voice over) It's like you know, well, innit, eh?

Voice Over: Favourite targets for the old ladies are telephone kiosks.

http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/grannies.ht m

Re:Is anyone else thinking super soldiers?

[bobbis.u]

Individual armour has also been discarded precisely because of weight considerations: you _could_ make a breastplate that could stop a rifle round, but it was impractically heavy.

This story and video show that American soldiers are currently using body armour that can stop rifle rounds. Although it doesn't say so anywhere, the sniper rifle was almost certainly 7.62mm. Here are some pictures of the aftermath: image 1 image 2.

You are correct however that the armour is pretty heavy, but that is less of an issue for vehicle based soldiers rather than pure infantry.

However, the problem with this powered exo-skeleton is that just the act of adding more weight, even if it is "self supporting", makes the soldier slower and less mobile (because of extra inertia). They need to be able to react very quickly and be able to dive to the ground, and jump behind cover, etc. There is a very long way to go before projects like this would actually improve a soldiers chances of survival. A better short term prospect is to continue to improve body armour to make it lighter.

True! it's a generalized body deconditioning

[spineboy]

When people get old and frail, and develop weak musccles and bones - it's a reflection of te general poor medical condition. Old people get hip fractures, because they are SICK and debilitated. 50% of old people who get a hip fracture wind up dying within a year, not from the fracture, but because they are already dying. It's the same with their muscle mass. Mental and physical debilitation i.e cardiac, pulmonary, renal, all lead to this muscle wasting.

This is like putting a patch on a completely bald tire that is about to blow - the whole thing is about to wear out. In order to be effective - you need to build up the entire tire to be effective. I just don't see this being practical, nor effective.