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Exoskeleton Like Halo Suit
Troy Hurtubise, inventor, has created what appears to some of Technovelgy's readers (and apparently lots of others) as a military exoskeleton like those used in Halo, the popular game.
(Tony's "halo suit")
It has a lot going for it; it stops bullets from elephant guns (as well as lesser projectiles), being made from high-impact plastic, ceramic bullet protection and ballistic foam. It also has compartments for emergency morphine and salt, a knife and emergency light. The forearms contain a small recording device, a pepper-spray gun and a detachable transponder. Don't forget the helmet, which also has a solar-powered fresh air system and drinking tube attached to a canteen carried in the small of the back.
You can see the resemblance to the game suit, shown below.
(Suit from Halo 2)
Since I like old science fiction, I'd go back a bit to other such devices. Fritz Lieber had a great one from his 1968 novel A Specter is Haunting Texas:
This truly magnificent, romantically handsome, rather lean man was standing on two corrugated-soled titanium footplates. From the outer edge of each rose a narrow titanium T-beam that followed the line of his leg, with a joint (locked now) at the knee, up to another joint with a titanium pelvic girdle and shallow belly support.
(Read more about titanium exoskeleton)
Going back a bit further, consider the space armor from James Blish's Cities in Flight (1957):
Twenty men in full space armor were behind them, faceless and bristling, like a phalanx of giant robots. One of them came forward, making he planks of the pier groan and squeal under the weeight, and suddenly spoke to him.
(Read more about space armor from Cities in Flight)
The earliest example of something like an exoskeleton in science fiction writing that I know about is this sample from A Conquest of Two Worlds, from a 1932 novel by Edmund Hamilton:
Earth's scientists solved the problem to some extent by devising rigid metallic clothing not unlike armor which would support the interior human structure against Jupiter's pull.
(Read more about Rigid Metallic Clothing )
I'm sure you're thinking I've forgotten some; see these references to armor in science fiction, then comment below to tell me what I missed. Thanks to an anonymous reader for the article tip, From bears to bullets.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 1/16/2007)
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Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
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