robotic pods and wearable exoskeletons
There’s an interesting article on news.com extra about Toyota’s R&D into robotic pods and wearable exoskeletons. The devices in the demo are pretty useless right now, but it’s really good to see more companies putting effort into wearable exoskeletons. Critics quoted in the article are correct in saying that the devices have little use right now, but I think the wearable exoskeleton market will be HUGE in a decade or two, especially for the military. Just image being able to wear a suit over your body that automatically makes you stronger and faster. This would really be useful for the military in that soldiers would be able to carry bigger and more powerful weapons, run faster, jump higher and farther, and be able to cover large distances without a vehicle. As the article points out, it would also be very useful for the elderly, but coupled with a brain-machine interface, it could be extremely useful for the disabled as well.