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

Please, put down your weapon

[TPIRman]

In Korea, only old people are Robocop.

Re:Please, put down your weapon

[N3Roaster]

And to think, they named it after a computer that went insane.

Re:Please, put down your weapon

[dadioflex]

It's Japan. A bit sad really - the message I got is that we're never going to retire from the daily grind of paid employment, we're just going to get strapped into increasingly more powerful waldos until our bodies finally give up and they've no choice but to spoon our brain straight into some robot's noggin.

Re:Please, put down your weapon

[scupper]

Overheard at the Triskelion Cafe , year 5406...

Bidder 1: 20,000 Quatloos that the Sun won't explode

Bidder 2: I'll match and raise you 10K Quatloos that he's one of those freaks that got his brains spooned into a Macintosh aquarium.

Oh noes!

[Anonymous Coward]

Now we have to be wary of an army of mecha-geriatrics!

Muscles

[$exyNerdie]

That's going to make their already weak muscles weaker.Muscles grow on consisten application of resistance....

Re:Muscles

[Sj0]

If you're at the point where you need it, odds are this is not going to cause more harm than good.

But, I'm in the prime of my life, and I have no problems saying this: I WANT ONE!!!

Re:Muscles

[ozmanjusri]

That's going to make their already weak muscles weaker.Muscles grow on consisten application of resistance.

It doesn't have to. You could dial in as much resistance as you want. Consistency is important to frail people, and often fear of injury dissuades them from any exercise at all. This would help.

Re:Muscles

[krunk4ever]

i've always wondered, if you lifted imaginary weights, but you put a lot of energy into trying to lift it, meaning you can actually see my arm shaking trying to lift this imaginary weight, how much exercise am i doing? is it really the same as lifting 0lbs? i mean, you can be sweating lifting imaginary weights. i know that the resistance isn't there, but much works is my body doing when imagining resistance and my body against it?

Re:Muscles

[Chiralhydra]

There was a study done a while back where some people lifted little finger weights, some did nothing, and some imagined lifting finger weights. The people actually doing the weights increased strength by 30% or so (IIRC), and the people imagining it increased by 20%, with no effect for the controls. Apparently it stengthens the nerve pathways that control the muscle, thereby allowing stronger signals to get through. So, there ya go, imagination can make you stronger! :D

Re:Muscles

[dabigpaybackski]

If you use your own muscles' tension to create resistance to a given motion, as in say a military press, you can build strength in the same muscle groups as with the traditional, weighted equivalent, but in my experience it's wasted effort compared to just lifting heavy weights with low repetitions, or the more difficult bodyweight exercises like one-armed pushups and one-legged squats.

These latter two types of strength exercises are more efficient strength builders than pure tension exercises like the one you describe because they are less apt to "burn out" the muscles when done properly. Believe me, I used to do kung-fu type tension exercises as a kid and I can say they accomplished very little for the amount of effort I put into them. They're more of a supplement to real training.

Get Pavel Tsatsouine's book, The Naked Warrior, and start practicing the bodyweight exercises if you don't want to use weights--you'll be a believer in no time.

Re:Muscles

[davebo]

Muscles grow on consistent application of resistance...

Unless, of course, you happen to suffer from a degenerative muscle disease, in which case no matter how much you exercise your muscles get weaker.

This kind of power assist device could be a godsend for folks in that condition, wouldn't you agree?

What has happened to Slashdot?

[Anonymous Coward]

The sleek, high-tech get-up looks like a white suit of armor.

For Christ's sake, it looks like the starting point for a storm trooper costume. What's this "white suit of armor" nonsense?

This is so cool

[pintpusher]

I can't wait til I'm Elderly!

Is anyone else thinking super soldiers?

[synthex]

It's a great concept, but can anyone see anything other than cost per suit preventing this being used as an aid for modern soldiers? With modification, obviously. Then they just need to teach the soldiers bad one liners ('Time to take out ze trash') and we have a super soldier/Arnold hybrid!

Re:Is anyone else thinking super soldiers?

[Tezkah]

Can anyone see anything other than cost per suit preventing this being used as an aid for modern soldiers

No, which is exactly why and what for: to enable soldiers to carry more armour and dish out more firepower.

Don't think for a moment that military applications of super-strength will mean Superman-style punching villains in the face. It won't. Ever.

However a major topic throughough the last century has been the weight of ammo and equipment a soldier has to carry. It's a real issue. That's one of the reasons (among other factors) why we've moved to smaller calibres.

Put some powered armour on those soldiers and suddenly they can carry a lot more heavy weaponry and ammo.

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.

Now think the other way around: if you have an armoured exo-skeleton, you can carry enough armour at least over the vital organs to stop even a 7.62mm round or shrapnel from hand grenades and pipe bombs. _And_ this time it's without a mobility penalty.

You've just made life harder for the enemy soldiers, because now they need to lug around bigger weaponry to take you out, which limits _their_ mobility.

But perhaps more importantly, and this is really what makes it a wet dream for the military is: enabling soldiers to carry more electronics and a sattellite connection. Giving at least one soldier per squad enough electronics to know exactly where the enemy is, what's happening, where is the squad needed, what should they avoid, etc, is something that can give a _huge_ advantage.

Nations have been defeated before because basically their chain of command didn't react fast enough. E.g., that's why large armies like those of France or Poland crumbled in the face of Blitzkrieg in WW2. They just weren't prepared to react at that speed.

Or the USSR in WW2 was massively handicapped by their lack of radios on their tanks.

Now picture giving each squad a direct link to their officers _all_ the time. Bidirectional. You can know _exactly_ what's happening at each point, in real time, and the soldiers can know exactly what's expected of them. You can instantly see when your troops are being pinned and flanked, and how, and you can tell them exactly how to counter it. Better yet they too can see a bigger picture and react in a more intelligent manner - By copying and pasting from old slashdot stories.

It's something that can really make or break a battle.

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.

Re:Is anyone else thinking super soldiers?

[I_Human]

I may just be an average US grunt but I can drive the HMMWV and get my laundry done, while spelling "they're" correctly.

Re:Is anyone else thinking super soldiers?

[iamatlas]

Don't think for a moment that military applications of super-strength will mean Superman-style punching villains in the face. It won't. Ever.

You, Sir, are wrong, and have obviously never played the docu-game Splinter Cell.

SOmeone has to say it...

[Anonymous Coward]

I, for one, welcome our power-armoured, elderly, overlords.

Sex performance

[John5788]

Yes it helps elderly with strength, so does it help the older men with sex incase viagra doesn't get it up?

I for one...

[TJ_Phazerhacki]

Welcome our new geriatric, robotic overlords...

Wait... I've heard that one before.. where was it....

OH YEAH, ON /, a few weeks ago. About the same story.

DUPE!

At what point is an artcle restating a previous article's content not a dupe? How far must it be removed to still be considered news?

Re:I for one...

[gstoddart]

At what point is an artcle restating a previous article's content not a dupe? How far must it be removed to still be considered news?

Technically, it would need to be an update or a follow up article which included more information than the previous incarnation.

This is a simple dupe. :-P

Sounds good...

[Karl Cocknozzle]

...When can I get my V3 Legs?

I don't even know why the scientists make them!

[hamfactorial]

WARNING: Persons denying the existence of robots may be robots themselves.

All you need...

[mendaliv]

All you'll need to do to get this really popular in the states is to start showing Aliens over and over, and have this company's commercial mixed in.

"Get away from her you BITCH!"

HAL-5 ??

[Anonymous Coward]

So that's like 8995 more HALs before this is interesting.

Just in time....

[Hamster Lover]

for Schwarzenegger's next movie!

They could combine the Terminator/RoboCop story line:

Prime Directives:

1. Get off my lawn!
2. Protect the elderly.
3. Uphold Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security.

Sports Training Applications?

[pHatidic]

Can I use this to train for rowing? Do squats in this suit so that I shred the crap out of my quads faster than every before, so that I can squat 450 lbs naturally by the time race day rolls around?

I know that if this would actually work, plenty of teams would pay a million dollars per unit for them. Who wants to give me a prototype to test out?

Grandpa 5

[cyrix]

Couldn't you see it coming after Johnny five? Asian man: What are you doing Grandpa 5? GP5: I went out galavanting with some young whipper snappers!! It was great, I felt alive again. Los Locos kick your ass, los locos kick your face, los locos kick your balls into outer space!!! Sing it with you yeh young whipper snapper..

Power Amor!

[HermanAB]

No, Power Amor - inevitable once Viagra fails to work...

This may seem funny to us...

[not-enough-info]

You have to realize though that the Japanese are desperate. While we have plenty of able bodied people to care for elderly, they aren't so lucky. In a matter of decades their work force is going to implode under the strain of an older population.

I can see this as fallout (no pun intended) from WWII really. The US had a baby boom; Japan had to cope with assimilating, through occupation, a new culture. A culture that was somewhat incompatible with their social norms. Now birth rates are falling because what is left of their old culture in their personalities and sensibilities is grinding against their new culture's pace and density. Raising a family is "lame", so nobody is doing it. All this, of course, is gross over-generalization; take it with a giant grain of salt.

If you ask my opinion though, now is the perfect time to start your own Japanese empire.

1. Move to Japan
2. Have like 12 kids
3. Wait a couple generations
4. ...
5. Profit! (genetically speaking)

Just make sure to save a couple of kids to care for you when you are old and infirm. I seriously doubt this robo-suit thing will pan out.

Re:This may seem funny to us...

[grumling]

If you ask my opinion though, now is the perfect time to start your own Japanese empire.

1. Move to Japan
2. Have like 12 kids
3. Wait a couple generations
4. ...
5. Profit! (genetically speaking)

Just make sure to save a couple of kids to care for you when you are old and infirm. I seriously doubt this robo-suit thing will pan out.

The problem is LI #1 - Move to Japan. The main reason we in the US won't have as much of a problem with aging boomers as Japan (who also had a post-WWII boom) is because we're more than happy to allow imigration (legal or otherwise) to bolster the ranks of the working. Japan is still a very closed society. If a country wants to maintain racial purity they have to have lots of children. Japan failed to do that, and is unwilling to increase the number of imagrants into the country. Now they are beginning to embrace women in the workplace (no pun intended) because they have no choice. Unfortuantly this will make things worse, due to women not having to rely on a man for food and shelter (and not getting married), and the tradition of long hours at work and scheduling conflicts. There was a NOVA about this subject a few months ago. They profiled a rural school with 1 student. When he graduates, the school will close down because there is no one after him. The elderly farmers in the area have no one to help take care of them as they age. I guess there's always harri-karri...

muscle decay or muscle stimulation

[iamnot]

The issue of muscle loss when using such a device could go either way - the ability to move around much more actively could actually stimulate muscles. Resistance could be fine-tuned so that the muscles gradually strengthen. Often, the reason old people become so weak is that they are afraid to do things, or at least do them actively (my own grandmothers are afraid to be outside) - so having a body suit would be amazing, if they actually leave the house!!

The possibilities are...scary!!!

[quadra23]

I don't trust old people with driving none-the-less built in computer suit.

I think there other issues such as what happens if they have a medical condition (or otherwise) that could lead them to strike out at others? Arm then you give them a warrant to do anything -- provided you don't stop them as soon as they start doing things they shouldn't.

Obviously this could happen regardless of age but can be more common as our bodies break down (i.e. where being elderly comes in). The theory seems sound until you realize the implications of putting such a system in place in practice.

Now that I think about it, the "armor" could also be controlled by someone else should certain unfavourable conditions be met. This could actually be a very good idea, just don't let control get into the wrong hands.

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.

HAL?

[ndogg]

I'm sorry Dave. You can't move that way. No, I'm serious Dave, your arthritis is getting worse, and you haven't taken your arthritis medicine yet today.

performance enhancers

[pintomp3]

maybe athletes can finally cut back on the steriods. i can see these kinda things becoming mainstream, at least in certain jobs. ups could raise the max weight on packages. moving to a new house would become much easier, you could just rent a few of these for you and u'r friends (no drunken battlebots plz). of course the military industry will be all over this. if enough ppl had it, other products would prolly change too. portable computers wouldn't need to be as lite. the human scale that you design around would change. you wouldn't be limited to things that can only be done under normal human strength. of course the scary part is, where to draw the line. each generation of these will be faster and quicker. evolution at a breakneck speed. and the disparity between rich and poor would be even greater. rich and powerful will have a whole new meaning. and as soon as these get wired to the brain for better reaction times and possible brain enhancements, we've become the borg. maybe i'm just overthinking this and should go back to sleep, but the ramifications r interesting. i can't wait to get mine and OC it!

Energy?

[r6144]

I guess such things would cost a ton of energy, especially in a military setting. Can reasonably-sized batteries last long enough for this? Or does every soldier need to carry around a few litres of gasoline, making them suicide bombs when hit by a bullet at the wrong place? ::shudders::

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

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.

Isaac Asimov's new book...

[talaphid]

I, Grandpa

The gripping anthology of questions posed in story format regarding the nature of octogenerianism in the face of the mechanical man: what does it truly mean to be Abraham Simpson? Similar to the Turing Problem, if you construct a black box where one inserts apple and receieve mush, at what point can one fool a double blind surveyor as to which is the machine-octogenarian and which is the Real McCoy.