Techalyzer

What do you do when the spirit is willing but the body is not able? The answer in the near future might be to don a robotic suit. This past month old and disabled individuals in Japan were able to rent a robotic suit that could help them become more mobile.
This suit looks like an exoskeleton that goes up either side of the body. It attaches with very large Velcro straps. There is a bone like hooded shoulder piece that holds the whole thing together and it consists of bulbous piece of white plastic that fit exactly on the joints like the knees, ankles, hips, elbows and shoulders. There is a padded control panel that wraps around the waist.
The idea is that the joints and muscles are stimulated electronically so that the useless limbs can function. In essence the plastic exoskeleton becomes like the puppet strings. There is also big control unit on the back of the suit. A battery pack is attached to the waist and is encapsulated in a zipped up pouch. This is a big bulky suit so obviously the disabled person needs professional help to get into it.
There are two versions of this robotic suit available. There is a version with two legs that rents for $2200 a month and another one leg version that rents for $1500 a month. The suit is called HAL which is an acronym for Hybrid Assistive Limb. Essentially it is a big computer with sensors that helps read your brain signals and direct your leg and arm movements. The number of sensors on this invention is incredible. There is even one that senses the amount of force needed for the foot to hit different types of floors.
Yoshiyuki Sinai, the creator of the robot suit, is a professor at the University of Tsukuba and the CEO of Cyber dyne, which is manufacturing and renting the suits. Of course at this price it is not very affordable. This is not one of those gadgets that will be assisting the elderly or ill population in general any time soon. Even just recharging the twenty two pound battery would be expensive and time consuming.
However it is miraculous in what it can accomplish. Sinai claims that the reason it works so beautifully in helping people regain their natural movements is because it can pick up faint bio signals that are on the surface of the skin when the human brain tries to move the exoskeleton. The effort is picked up by the sensors and the robot suit then starts moving to support the action.
One concern about this robotic suit is that it will soon just be assumed into military service. However the company Cyberdene has sworn that it will not sell it for war like purposes and instead sell it only to the needy in Japan. However before it is sold successfully to anyone the price of this suit obviously has to drop
It’s not known when, if ever, the HAL robotic suit will be available outside of Japan.