Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Power Armor For the Elderly

Posted by Zonk on from the super-monkey-rocket-old-lady-force-go dept.

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."

18 of 279 comments (clear)

  1. Please, put down your weapon by TPIRman · · Score: 4, Funny

    In Korea, only old people are Robocop.

    1. Re:Please, put down your weapon by N3Roaster · · Score: 4, Funny

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

      --
      Remember RFC 873!
    2. Re:Please, put down your weapon by dadioflex · · Score: 3, Funny

      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.

  2. Muscles by $exyNerdie · · Score: 3, Interesting

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

    1. Re:Muscles by Sj0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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!!!

      --
      It's been a long time.
    2. Re:Muscles by ozmanjusri · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  3. This is so cool by pintpusher · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can't wait til I'm Elderly!

    --
    man, I feel like mold.
  4. Is anyone else thinking super soldiers? by synthex · · Score: 4, Funny

    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!

    1. Re:Is anyone else thinking super soldiers? by bobbis.u · · Score: 3, Informative
      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.

    2. Re:Is anyone else thinking super soldiers? by I_Human · · Score: 3, Funny

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

      --
      -JP
  5. Sounds good... by Karl+Cocknozzle · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...When can I get my V3 Legs?

    --
    Who did what now?
  6. All you need... by mendaliv · · Score: 3, Funny

    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!"

  7. HAL-5 ?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

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

  8. Just in time.... by Hamster+Lover · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  9. Power Amor! by HermanAB · · Score: 4, Funny

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

    --
    Oh well, what the hell...
  10. This may seem funny to us... by not-enough-info · · Score: 4, Interesting
    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.
    --
    ---k--
    </stupid>
  11. muscle decay or muscle stimulation by iamnot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!!

    --
    sig? what sig? i didn't see any sig...
  12. Isaac Asimov's new book... by talaphid · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.