Tomorrow's technology generally doesn't arrive with a flashy release party, but tends to enter quietly on the shoulders of current research or perhaps moseys on in like this new lightweight ankle exoskeleton designed to take some of the work out of walking.
The researchers at Carnegie Mellon and North Carolina State University who developed it envision it helping people who have become paralyzed, suffered a stroke, or even astronauts returning from space - their extended periods without gravity causes them to lose muscle mass. What's cool about the design is that is uses no batteries at all; rather, it builds on the way our calf muscles act as a kind of clutch when we walk and combines that motion with a spring that releases when the foot hits the ground.
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In all, the ankle-exoboot makes it about 7% easier to walk - the equivalent of schlepping a heavy backpack - but it will obviously pave the (walk) way for some truly futuristic exoskeletons that will take us right to the Edge of Tomorrow and those amazing exosuits.
Especially when you consider how the research design above looks so similar in spirit to the the conceptual shoe at left by Kei Kagami. However, I could also exo-boots going in the direction of the amazing shoe creation above, designed by a group of visionary students attending Denmark's Kolding School of Design.
- Lesley Scott
NOTE: Actively embracing the future with a desire to make technology fashionable and timely is a signature of the Futurenetic Fashion Tribe. For more of my posts about this tribe, CLICK HERE. To learn more about each of fashion's four mega-tribes that I track, START HERE.
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