Seismic has created a new kind of "power clothing" that acts to amplify your own movements when your own muscles just aren't quite up to the task.
(Power Clothing from Seismic)
A lightweight, comfortable ‘super suit’ designed by Seismic – a wearable robotics spin-off from the non-profit research centre SRI International – works with the user’s muscles to help boost their power.
The suit’s ‘electric muscles', powered by tiny motors, contract in a way that mimics human muscle. These electric muscles are integrated into the clothing around the joints of the body and attached via grips in the clothing. These grips function like tendons in the human body.
A computer and sensors tracking body movements are also integrated into the suit; software tells the muscles in the clothing when to activate. The hard technology components such as motors, batteries and control boards are incorporated into hexagonal low-profile pods, designed for maximum comfort...
To keep the clothing looking sleek and its function discreet, Seismic worked with designer Yves Béhar. “The goal is to make a product that you actually want to wear, not one that you have to wear,” says Béhar. “Comfort is extremely important, as well as aesthetics.”
The real genius in the design is that you don't have to control the suit; you just wear it, like your clothes, like skin...
Here's how it works, minus the diagrams. The inside of the suit is a mass of pressure receptors, hundreds of them. You push with the heel of your hand; the suit feels it, amplifies it, pushes with you to take the pressure off the receptors that gave the order to push.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/9/2018)
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