Power Suit Promises Super-Human Strength

anthemaniac writes "LiveScience is reporting out of NextFest on a Japanese-built power suit that amplifies the strength of its wearer. The onboard computer is hooked up to sensors that monitor natural movements, then it inflates cuffs to boost lifting power. The Power Assist Suit could be used by hospital workers to move heavy patients, the researchers say."

Comments

Re:Dull

[Mr. Slippery]

Moving heavy patients? Was someone having a contest to see who could come up with the most boring use of super-human strength?

It may sound boring to you. Sounds like a really good idea to me...my mother, formerly a nurse, suffered a career-ending neck injury when she had to move a patient by herself in an understaffed nursing home. (The patient suffered from senile dementia, became combative, and she fell with the patient on top.)

After fifteen years, two surgeries, and various physical therapies, she still has significant pain and disability.

Sure, I want to trade in my Subaru for a mecha as much as any geek. But anything that prevents other nurses - the people who have the most impact on keeping you alive when you're hospitalized - from suffering a similar fate, sounds like a damn good idea to me.

'Elbow cuffs'

[caitsith01]

If this thing works buy supplying extra force at the joints, as it appears, then doesn't it carry a serious risk of injuring the extremities? For example, the suit might give you enough power via your elbows to lift something very heavy, but all that power is also being transferred through your wrists and fingers, which as far as I can see are unsupported and unaugmented. The amount of stress it could potentially put on those joints is a little worrying.

I would think a system that covers the entire limb in questions would be far safer...

Re:Power suit

[Mr. Slippery]

Read Starship Troopers and ask which version the guys at DARPA will fund.

This is from Japan. Their militaristic ambitions are still low (though perhaps on the rebound), while they have an aging popultion.