Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Boy Builds Wall-Climbing Machine Using Recycled Vacuums

Posted by samzenpus on from the hello-true-believers dept.

Joe McIntosh writes "Hibiki Kono just might be a boy genius. The 13-year-old decided he wanted to climb vertical surfaces like his hero, Spiderman. So, he used two 1,400-watt recycled vacuum cleaners and a little bit of elbow grease to make a machine that allows him to scale walls. Kono has been scaling the walls of his UK school and has told the media that he hopes his invention will help window washers eliminate clumsy ladders from their daily routine."

24 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Mother by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    and mother likes it because it cleans the wall on the way up.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Mother by pilgrim23 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Ha! and to think, Harry Potter just used a Broom!

      --
      - Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
  2. Oh no he didn't! by ak_hepcat · · Score: 3, Funny

    Because didn't Adam fall down a lot on his during the Mythbusters attempt?

    --
    Support FSF: Stop thinking with your wallet, and think with your imagination. (cc/non-commercial)
    1. Re:Oh no he didn't! by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

      So you are mythbusting the Mythbusters? I hear recursion is also a myth.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    2. Re:Oh no he didn't! by BagOBones · · Score: 3, Interesting

      http://mythbustersresults.com/episode54

      A suction cup system can be used to scale a (23-story) skyscraper.

      plausible

      The concept worked but Adam did not have the stamina to scale the entire building. Making the climb would require significant physical training.

      --
      EA David Gardner -"... but the consumers have proven that actually what they want is fun."
    3. Re:Oh no he didn't! by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think the interesting thing with this idea are the foot straps. Lets you use leg power for most of your lifting. The Mythbuster's solution needed much more upper body strength, and so was much more strenuous. Time for a Myth revisit?

    4. Re:Oh no he didn't! by Cylix · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There are a few important differences between the two systems.

      Adam's design was not tethered and has a finite amount of power to work with. This meant he had to rely on a few mechanical components. I think overall his gear appeared to be quite a bit heavier.

      The kid's design is not an efficient system and has a relatively infinite power source. It gets to be lighter and a bit more lossy in terms of suction. This is how he is able to scale brick walls with what appears to be a few hoses and cups.

      However, I think if they adopted some of the simpler aspects of the kids machine it would lighten the weight on the Adam crawler.

      --
      "You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
    5. Re:Oh no he didn't! by socz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Man, I love climbing rock walls (the fake ones). So much fun!

      But like my sig says....

      The question isn't "can you?" But rather "why would you want to?" So much power and effort when much easier and more importantly, simpler systems have been developed. But that's not to say it might not have an application some day right? Say like, having to venture outside of the international space station a`la R2D2 to fix a power coupling or something. Just saying!

      --
      My abilities are only limited by my imagination
    6. Re:Oh no he didn't! by Arthur+Grumbine · · Score: 4, Funny

      But that's not to say it might not have an application some day right? Say like, having to venture outside of the international space station a`la R2D2 to fix a power coupling or something. Just saying!

      I'm no physicist, but I'm guessing that a vacuum suction system in space will be about as effective as a ShamWow at the bottom of the ocean.

      --
      Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
    7. Re:Oh no he didn't! by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually he didn't make it. He slipped and had to hang on the safety rope near the top. However I'll him the credit for reapplying the vacuum cleaner suction things to the wall and continuing from the point where they failed.

      --
      -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
    8. Re:Oh no he didn't! by Sethumme · · Score: 3, Informative

      13-year-olds inventing things just for sheer awesomeness is always great, but this 13-year-old didn't invent anything. He just used the Bang Goes the Theory design.

  3. No more ladders? by Ossifer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You'll love those "clumsy" ladders when someone trips on your power cord...

    1. Re:No more ladders? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Or one of the tubes come loose or otherwise gets a leak.

      Cool fun project but totally impracticable for real-life use (you think no one thought of this before?).

      For climbing walls I personally I like those nanofiber pads that the military has. Basically the same design as a gecko's feet pads. Lets you climb anything string enough to support your weight. Doesn't work well on crumbly surfaces though.

  4. particularly on skyscrapers by spazdor · · Score: 2, Informative

    Window washers may also want to carry around a UPS on their backs.

    --
    DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
  5. Goodf Idea by camperdave · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Window washers rejoice! You can now use a piece of technology susceptible to power failure, surges, blown fuses, and seized motors, instead of the centuries old, proven technology that you've been using for years. Imagine how much safer you'll be clinging to a wall by a noisy machine rather than a clumsy ladder.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  6. Impressive? Sure, but it's a rip-off... by Anaerin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This again? The kid is doing nothing more than ripping off the BBC TV show "Bang Goes the Theory", that did this last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1qoINo2MPM

    1. Re:Impressive? Sure, but it's a rip-off... by BenihanaX · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not only is he claiming credit for an "invention" that isn't his, he fails to note the impracticality due to the strength and stamina required. In the BBC show, Jem Stansfield (who is in better shape than the average window washer) is exhausted by the time he makes it up the building, and he didn't do a bit of cleaning on the way.

    2. Re:Impressive? Sure, but it's a rip-off... by Larry+Lightbulb · · Score: 2, Informative

      Two different styles of programme - one is real science, the other is being surprised that things in movies don't work without special effects.

    3. Re:Impressive? Sure, but it's a rip-off... by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nice to see the original - it seems like he would have had to do a lot less work if the extension cord had been run from above rather than below. A hundred feet or so of extension cord is fairly heavy.

      An improvement of the gloves would be some kind of wipe to neutralize oily surfaces...

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    4. Re:Impressive? Sure, but it's a rip-off... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Some impressive engineering nous for a kid? Sure.

      A kid building a wall-climbing machine out of spare vacuum cleaner parts? It reminds me of something you'd read in a Cory Doctorow novel.

      Kids are great. They give me hope. My kid just got a job as a research assistant in a genetics lab at her university, and though she's working like a slave for next to nothing, the experience has lit her up like a neon sign. Every night I get to hear about stuff about which I understand very little, but her excitement is just ambrosia for this proud papa. I usually only get about five minutes of thrilling reportage before she dashes out, probably to some hormone-fueled assignation with a pierced and pimply male, but knowing that her intellect, her future, her life is just exploding with the new sustains me.

      That, and the fantasy of gelding the grabby boy who dares lay an insincere hand on her.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:Impressive? Sure, but it's a rip-off... by IsNoGood · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Guys I know you don't have access to UK TV, http://www.bbc.co.uk/bang/ show and made this about 2 years ago, all this kid have done is to copy that, still good that he learned something from TV how you guys make that out to him being smart I don't understand "13-year-old schoolboy has emulated his heroes, Jem Stansfield and Spider-Man, and built his very own vacuum gloves. Hibiki Kono's efforts were rewarded with international headlines and, even better, a birthday card from Jem himself." Move on, nothing to see...

  7. Health and Safety by Jamza · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How is he being allowed to do this on the side of his school? To get a pair of safety scissors in a UK school there are like 60 health and safety requirements that need to be met... somehow I think scaling the side of a school building with hoovers might violate the H&S laws.

  8. Re:Windowcleaning by MichaelSmith · · Score: 2, Funny

    what abuot a building that is 20+ floors tall?

    Guys in rock climbing gear repelling down the wall. I heard this story about a room full of women learning how to breast feed...

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  9. Re:The kid is smart, the techurs not so much by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 2, Funny

    The kid should have been roped off for this stunt, not kind of sort of assisted by the naughty vicar there.

    The Vicar has already seen the boy "roped off", the element of suction adds more excitement to it.

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck