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.

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!

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.

Power Amor!

[HermanAB]

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

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!!!

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.

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!!