Slashdot Mirror
Exoskeletons For Rent In Japan
destinyland writes "Cyberdyne has started renting their exoskeleton body suits in Japan. The mind-controlled wearable machine increases strength and endurance, and rents for $2,300 a month. (Sensors on the skin detect traces of nerve signals from the brain, synchronizing the power suit's movements with the user's own limbs.) New video shows the suits in use on the streets of Tokyo, and the concept may be catching on. DARPA now has a program called Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation 'to develop devices and machines that will increase the speed, strength and endurance of soldiers in combat environments.'"
How is this not a joke?
From TFA, the exoskeleton from the Japanese is being made to help the disabled and the immobile. The US exoskeleton? It's for the soldier of tomorrow.
Interesting priorities, that tell a lot about each culture.
Seriously? They named their company after the company in Terminator? I'm not sure if I'm amused or concerned.
So says the person whose ordinary inner skeleton (and the muscles surrounding it) obviously work without any problem. The disabled, those in rehabilitation, the elderly and infirm, I guess these people don't exist in your world *roll*
I'd hate to see what one of those things can do (to the user) if the sensors malfunction. Lets hope that the joints are desgined to not have a larger range of motion then the human wearing them.
read my mind at http://the-willows.blogspot.com/
Well, it would be great if these things help the disabled, but none of the people in the test were disabled. And the article did not say that these would help the disabled. In fact it said that the exo-skeleton "is not ready for grandma yet."
Yeah, just like tanks stop dead when they get wet.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
It speaks heavily about their needs. Japan is very concerned about lack of youth. They are currently regressing in terms of population size (of Japanese; illegal aliens are an issue for them). OTH, America has spent TONS of money on it for moving things. Simply the last investment is via DOD contractors. But, there has been active research into this for several decades. And up until recent times, it was concerned mostly with hazardous waste and/or moving large material.
Culture has NOTHING to do with this.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I watched the video of the three people walking the streets with leg exoskeletons.
Argh! It just abounds in wrongness! They are all in black, with white exoskeletons. There should be a red one, a blue one and a yellow one or some such! Don't these people watch Sentai shows?
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
That depends entirely on who will be using them. If those persons aren't able to move/exercise on their own then it's good, I'd take one of these over a wheelchair any day. If it's used for superhuman strength then I imagine it'll still take normal strength on the inside. But yeah, if you use it only for convienience and all the time then maybe. But that's really no different from a couch potato that barely gets his ass out to the car and back. In fact, I'm fairly sure that this motion will be more exercise than sitting in a car no matter what.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Cyberdyne = the fictional company that built Skynet in the Terminator movies
HAL = the computer in "2001: A Space Odyssey"
You're obviously not a science fiction geek ;-)
And I'm surprised that a real company calls itself Cyberdyne and uses HAL as an acronym for a real product. While I appreciate the humor, most companies want reputable sounding rather than funny names. That way, Japanese Cyberdyne is a big exception.
C - the footgun of programming languages
The disabled, those in rehabilitation, the elderly and infirm, I guess these people don't exist in your world *roll*
My suspicion is that with common use of these exosceletons the percentages of groups that 'need' them will increase. The trend, of course, could be reversed if people took more care of the standard implementation of body functions. However, that would not create another growing revenue stream in the health care sector.
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
It is worth it for almost-paralyzed people who are sick of being stuck into their wheelchairs. Most of the old people unable to walk are not paralyzed but to weak to stand. In US they pray, in Japan they pay. Guess who gets to walk again ?
Seriously, I could see me pay a lot of money to be able to walk in the latter years of my life.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
I don't argue with your main point, but the exercise you mention to demonstrate it doesn't seem to work for me. What I experienced, the first time I tried it, was that my arms tended to drift outwards as you suggested, but that went away after a vigorous shoulder-shrug. To make sure this wasn't just a time-based fade (after observing the effect and shrugging, it was probably over 30 seconds since I left the doorway), I waited 5 minutes and tried it again.
The second time, as soon as I stepped out, I swung my arms up overhead and back down once. Then relaxed, and (surprise!) no difference in loose arm position vs the resting case. My diagnosis of this is that the shoulder joint is displaced somewhat by the unusual reverse-cantilever loading, and pops back to center under normal usage. Since this is a geometric effect, it can't really be extrapolated to any other joints, and gives no insight into genuine muscle adaptation effects, which I'm sure do exist, and are a potential problem.