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Robot Body Suit To Be Marketed In Japan

Posted by timothy on from the we-all-want-exoskeletons dept.

destinyland writes "A Japanese company is preparing limited mass production of a cybernetic bodysuit which dramatically increases user strength up to ten times. The "Hybrid Assistive Limb" suit synchronizes movements of a mechanical exoskeleton to biological nerve signals detected by biopads on the body. (Originally envisioned for people with disabilities, the suit also has industrial applications, and the company is planning annual production of 400 units at $4,200 apiece.) Its battery life is five hours, according to the company's web site, which promises they're also opening an EU branch to begin sales outside of Japan."

36 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. "limited mass production" by somersault · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seems a bit of an oxymoron.

    And I want one. With lascannons.

    --
    which is totally what she said
    1. Re:"limited mass production" by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 4, Funny

      I want one with a fleshlight installed for my penis and massage rollers for my legs and back.

      Why do I have to give up comfort to gain the benefits of the suit?

    2. Re:"limited mass production" by wisty · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's $4000, so it's not out of range for a really cool toy.

      I wonder if you could get a paintball cannon as well? :D

    3. Re:"limited mass production" by somersault · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yep the price is pretty reasonable.. though I don't have any real uses for it, I'm already far stronger than I need to be for day to day life as an IT professional!

      Now, if they added on a rocketpack with say 5 miles range then I'd consider it a worthwhile investment as my main commuter vehicle :)

      --
      which is totally what she said
    4. Re:"limited mass production" by Skevin · · Score: 4, Funny

      > far stronger than I need to be for day to day life as an IT professional!

      Your work environment will adapt.

      Trac ticket 14849
      Reported by: Operations Manager
      Owned by: Somersault
      Priority: Major
      Description: Hey, we just got eight full racks of blade servers downstairs. Please bring them up to the fifth floor before lunch. There's also a three-ton rack cooler that needs to be installed.

      Trac ticket 14936
      Reported by: Operations Manager
      Owned by: Somersault
      Priority: Major
      Description: Our next truckload of routers is here. I need them in the NOC. This time, DO NOT bring the truck. Just the routers.

      Trac ticket 15186
      Reported by: Office Manager
      Owned by: Somersault
      Priority: Major
      Description: Somersault, would you be a dear and open the jar of peanut butter in the kitchen fridge? No one else in the office can even budge it, but you with your exo-suit and all... Thanks.

      --
      "Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang
  2. Cyberdyne? by Lurker · · Score: 5, Funny

    Look at the name of the company . . . Cyberdyne. Fuck them and their goddamn pre-Terminator bullshit. I shouldn't worry, they'll probably be bought out by Weyland-Yutani anyway.

    1. Re:Cyberdyne? by TheKidWho · · Score: 4, Funny

      Even worse... Cyberdyne is working on HAL... HAL is Skynet... God help us all!

    2. Re:Cyberdyne? by Schemat1c · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wake me up when they make an electric car called the USS Enterprise.

      Wake up.

      --

      "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown
    3. Re:Cyberdyne? by palegray.net · · Score: 2, Informative

      This is just wrong... HAL was developed in Urbana, Illinois, most likely through research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sheesh.

      --
      512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
    4. Re:Cyberdyne? by The_K4 · · Score: 2, Funny

      And it's made to look like Tron! I think someone is a few days late for April Fools!

  3. Hybrid Assisted Limb? by Bazman · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hybrid Assisted Limb? Or H-A-L for short? HAL?

    I'm waiting for the model 9000.

  4. Velcro? by Hadlock · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Increase your strength by 1000% ! Attaches to your body with... velcro?
     
    Still waiting for the "in use" videos to pop up on youtube. I'd love to see a driver unload a freight truck wearing one of these, instead of a forklift.

    --
    moox. for a new generation.
    1. Re:Velcro? by loutr · · Score: 5, Informative

      FTFA. There's a demonstration at about 3:40.

    2. Re:Velcro? by Neil+Sausage · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And in a terrific coincidence with one of today's other articles, the audio's been disabled because it hasn't been authorized by Warner Music Group. The word egregious comes to mind, and that's putting it nicely.

    3. Re:Velcro? by SupremoMan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Increase your strength by 1000% ! Attaches to your body with... velcro?

      No, more like your body attaches to it via Velcro.

  5. Strength != carrying capacity or lifting power by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Before someone goes and dreams of a Steve Austin experience: You can't carry more. You can't lift a car, unless that "wearable robot" also comes with an exoskelet that can carry that weight.

    Lifting power is not only muscle power. It is also required that you are able to endure the stress that additional weight puts on your system.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:Strength != carrying capacity or lifting power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If the weight capacity isn't signifigantly more than the capacity of the human body, then what would be the point, aside from an interesting halloween costume?

    2. Re:Strength != carrying capacity or lifting power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      The point would be to let someone lift objects they can normally handle with less fatigue on the muscles. So an activity that someone used to be able to do for only say 15mins they can now do for hours without feeling tired.

    3. Re:Strength != carrying capacity or lifting power by Enleth · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, it is, to some extent.

      Human skeleton can support much more weight than the muscles could ever lift. After all, the athletes with several times more muscle than a normal person can lift several times more than a normal person could, but their skeletons aren't several times more durable. Exercise makes them a bit stronger, due to good blood supply rich with macroelements, but the same could be achieved with just a good diet and some normal daily exercise, not necessairly athlete's training sessions.

      So it will be possible to use this for some weight lifting - I guess 100kg would be easy, there was a video of a guy in a prototype of this device carrying 100kg of rice around the lab. 200kg should be manageable, maybe 300kg could be the limit for most people, as that's what some athletes can still manage safely for a while. Well, ask a doctor specialising in skeletal aliments for some hard facts, I think they'd be quite interested in figuring this out.

      --
      This is Slashdot. Common sense is futile. You will be modded down.
    4. Re:Strength != carrying capacity or lifting power by blind+biker · · Score: 4, Informative

      From the picture in the linked article, it's pretty obvious that this is indeed an exoskeleton - it has bottom support (from underneath the feet) all the way up to the arms.

      --
      "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
    5. Re:Strength != carrying capacity or lifting power by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Before someone goes and dreams of a Steve Austin experience: You can't carry more. You can't lift a car, unless that "wearable robot" also comes with an exoskelet that can carry that weight.

      Too bad you didn't read the fucking summary which contains the word "exoskeleton".

      -1, WhatAnIdiot

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    6. Re:Strength != carrying capacity or lifting power by Rob+the+Bold · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If the weight capacity isn't signifigantly more than the capacity of the human body, then what would be the point, aside from an interesting halloween costume?

      Lots of people have lifting capacity less than an average human body due to disease, injury or age. These people might like to have jobs or pick up grandchildren.

      --
      I am not a crackpot.
  6. I for one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Welcome myself as your new robotic overlord!

  7. I hope I'm not the only one by DreamsAreOkToo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I hope I'm not the only one who saw this and thought, oh cool! Only $4,200? What a steal, I'm gunna get one!

    Too bad reality set in :(

    1. Re:I hope I'm not the only one by Rosyna · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, I had the same thought too. Then I saw "Cyberdyne" and "HAL". Sigh, it's either a joke or the beginning of armageddon.

      Not sure which I'd prefer.

  8. This isn't new by Sepiraph · · Score: 2, Informative

    This has been around for a few years. Their wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_5's earliest entry is from 2005, as was the earliest event date listed in the company web site http://www.cyberdyne.jp/English/events/index.html.

  9. Re:aesthetics: Anime? Try Hentai . . . by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 5, Funny

    Also, they failed to mention that while you're wearing one of these, it causes your mouth to move out-of-sync with the words you're saying.

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  10. American Renaissance News by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And why exactly are we throwing millions of page views at these racist fucks???

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    1. Re:American Renaissance News by caffeinemessiah · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And why exactly are we throwing millions of page views at these racist fucks???

      Sigh...the dangers of news aggregation, which is probably how the submitter stumbled upon this piece of bigoted tripe. Somewhere, a thousand page ranking algorithms just went mad seeing these two ostensibly different areas of the Net link to each other.

      Can we please be careful not to link this sort of website to slashdot? Somebody please think of the page ranking algorithms!! For those who don't want to click through, this is a summary from the site in the second link of the story (amren.com).


      * The Dangers of Diversity, Part II, Editor Jared Taylor continues a multi-part examination of the effects of diversity by taking a look at just what happens when races mix. This segment provides additional examples of the violence and conflict that ensues when different racial groups are forced to mingle in public schools, and also in prisons.
      * In Three Race Murders in Seattle, journalist Nicholas Stix reports on the murders of three white men, Edward Scott McMichael, James Paroline, and Kristopher Klime, by blacks. Mr. Stix shows how the media (and government) consistently downplayed the racial angle in these cases.
      * In A Voice For Our People, Peter Bradley reviews Frank Borzellieri's new book Lynched: A Conservative's Life on a New York City School Board, which documents the author's one-man crusade to keep Western literature and values alive in increasingly "multicultural" New York City. Mr. Bradley holds him up as example of what a difference one determined man can make in his community.
      * Plus, paying the price for insulting Obama supporters, the GOP takes its message to "hip hop settings," Attorney General Holder on the "nation of cowards," the US military becoming another foreign legion, another monkey cartoon controversy, and more!

      --
      An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
  11. Mod Up by Xiroth · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yeah, I second that. Apparently they're only happy with the Japanese making new toys if they stay in their own country.

  12. sizes? by martas · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This can't possibly be one size fits all. I wonder if they have to make sizes for different combinations of arm, leg, and back length?

    --
    weinersmith
  13. Increase your sex life! by Veggiesama · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ever wanted to be BIG BIG? Now are your chance! For little as 4200$$ American dollars now you too can enlarge your strength (up to 10x). Last for FIVE hours, for her pleasure!

  14. HAL Cyberdyne by olddotter · · Score: 3, Funny

    This looks like an April 1st press release. Or a sad company looking for every movie tie in they could find.

    If its real, I guess we can expect 400 new super villains per year. Who is working on Spiderman suits and genetic engineering?

    Perhaps we will need the Qualcomm Crocaeagles sooner than we expected!!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3agYeT-T9co

    --
    Think Deeply. ...
  15. I'm just waiting for the day... by Mad-Bassist · · Score: 2, Funny

    That some fool gets in the news by trying to be a superhero and promptly gets himself hurt.

    --
    "The only legitimate use of a computer is to play games." - Eugene Jarvis
  16. Is this viral marketing by Sebilrazen · · Score: 2, Insightful

    for the new Terminator flick?

    --
    "There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.
  17. MOD PARENT UP by Idiomatick · · Score: 2, Informative

    Please editors change the link. This is pretty bad for /. :S