Japanese scientists show super suit

Exo-skeleton for ectomorphs

By Lucy Sherriff • Get more from this author

Posted in Science, 10th June 2005 09:04 GMT

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The land that built an entire film industry on grown men dressed up as giant lizards or insects has applied the same principles to developing a super-powered exo-skeleton to harden frail human bodies.

Developed at Tsukuba University in Japan, the suit is being touted as something something that could help the elderly, frail, or disabled; or as something that could be used by manual workers to help lift heavier loads.

It weighs in at 15 kilograms, and detects muscle movement through the flow of electrical signals over the skin's surface, according to an AFP report. It then amplifies the signal, and moves accordingly.

According to the photographs accompanying the original story, the suit can boost the power of a man to such an extent that he can easily lift...umm...a small woman. Hmmmm...perhaps we need not be quite so afraid.

The prototype will be on show at the World Exposition in the Aichi prefecture.

Regular readers will be relieved to know we have passed on details to the neoLuddite Resistance Army.®