Can’t wait 'til we can punch through walls like in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Is there a “reverse” exoskeleton? One that makes running harder. I train for ultra trails and thereare no hills near me, I’d love something to simulate a 10%-30% climb while running outside.
They mention it in the article. Exoskeleton that adds resistance in specific ways for rehab. No reason why it couldn’t work for training resistance.
I should have read it instead of just glancing over it. Thanks.
You’ve met the ebike, now prepare for e-jogging.
More seriously: interesting. I’ve been seeing noise about exoskeletons for yeaaaars now, and my thought for a long time has been “cool small-scale proof of concept in a limited context, call me when someone actually goes through the logistics of larger scale production and rollout.” It looks like we might finally be approaching that point. These are still smaller scale deployments, but they’re actual practical use cases which are being relied on for actual real world things vs. small scale lab experiments.
Obviously this could be huge as an assistive device for people with mobility limitations, as well as an assistive device to literally everyone as needed. The real question is if it will actually become available to those who would most benefit from it, though, as we already have plenty of expensive assistive technologies and medical interventions that are out of reach for many people because being disabled is expensive and our world is inaccessible.
Honestly for physical therapy if these are built right a huge amount of people could benifit from this. For people with no treatment options too that just need assistive tech.
I will believe it when I see it walking down the street. Powered by limitless fusion power.
Mobility type tech will likely see a boom in the next few years, is my guess. Same with any other tech that helps/benefits the Boomer generation as they enter retirement/old age.
Tons of business trends and even political trends have followed the boomers life cycles due to the disproportionate chunk of the market they represent. Eg. When boomers were in their late teens/early twenties, it was the 1960s, and it was all psychedelics, free-er sexuality stuff, peace and love. As they got older and started having children, suddenly it shifted to “protect the kids from drugs, lets declare war on our old pass-times!” while also having an undercurrent of cocaine for big business career sorts. As they’ve gotten older, more programs and initiatives have focused increasingly on seniors and senior supports.
Mobility tech like this, is following the same trend.
the next few years, […] the Boomer generation as they enter retirement/old age.
You know the boomers are like 80 now, right? The only boomers not somehow retired are the ones also under the American system, who will never afford this.
Not sure how that matters specifically. Boomers are just now approaching 80 – 80 year olds today, are still part of “The Silent Generation” which came before the boomers.
Boomers are 1946-1964, so they’re 62 - 80. They likely won’t start encountering mobility issues until their mid 70s/early 80s if they’ve remained “reasonably” active and healthy. So, I don’t think my comment’s out of line in that sense. The earliest of the boomers are approaching that age / have reached that age – and now we’re seeing more products/solutions brought forward to assist, just in time for the rest of the boomer cohort to buy it / use it.
Further, the wealth disparity between the older generation and the younger is significant, and worth highlighting. My retired parent earns more money than I do per year. Here in Canada, their stocks, retirement investments, and govt pension plans earn them more annual income than I earn from working full time in a relatively decent job in the private sector – well above the national averages in both cases. My parents weren’t particularly wealthy growing up, just regular middle class. I have no particular reason to think my parent’s situation unique, but rather to think it more the norm for that age range, especially as all their peers are in seemingly similar situations (if they’re still alive, admittedly).
The media focuses on stories of old people who are destitute and need help for social services narratives. But remember, Trump’s 80. Bill Gates is 70. A ton of senators, judges, and so on are WELL past the age you’d think they’d retire, and they’re still earning like 100s of thousands/millions of dollars per year. The Kochs in the states are well into their 80s, still throwing hundreds of millions at politicians to control how the country’s run. In Canada, this demographic also contains the ‘snow birds’, a large enough demographic slice to have its own colloquial nickname, they’re the people who have vacation homes in florida that they go to for months out of the year because… they’re so economically strapped! They can only afford their regular home, their vacation home in florida, and a cabin for weekend get-aways! How will they ever afford something like a mobility device! Oh, wait, you’re right, they can drag out the same old narrative to push the cost onto younger generations! They’re too house-poor to afford it, so they’ll get the government/insurance programs to cover the cost!
Being old doesn’t mean you’re poor and hard done by, except when the government wants tax payers to pay more to senior care programs, at which point they churn out the marketing message that all old people need to be protected. Are there old people who are poor and destitute? Yes. But it’d be absurd to type cast them as such.
Well a Koch brother is. The other one is trying to privatize firey pits if the lore is to be believed.
we can all be porters now
Pretty solid for various handicaps and such.
I could see this helping construction workers take part of the load off of their bones. I’ve seen so many people with fucked up bodies, from running up and down roofs with heavy equipment and materials. Something like this would be great.
It wouldn’t really even need a massive battery. You could easily fit a bunch of batteries in the work van, and just swap them hourly or whatever.
We’ve been in the dawn for about 10 years now
deleted by creator
Americans will do anything to avoid walking.
Kind of an ableist take, yeah?
Tbf this walking just with robot leg support